As for any peace settlement, you would be hard pressed to find anybody who actually believes in such a possibility anymore. Israels idea of settlement now consists of pushing all Palestinians into Jordan.

I should have said it straight out: attacking Iran (god, the Saudis would love it) would be lunacy of the first order. It would unify Iranian society and you can forget about regime change (love this new mantra which just rolls off the tongue).

Iran has to go. Simply from a geo-political point of view. Syria, Hezbollah (in Lebanon), and Hamas (in Gaza) make it difficult for any “peace” settlement taking place among the Israelis and Palestinians. Iran is the principal backer of the above three players.

The US cannot afford to allow the Iranians to have nuclear weapons while US conventional forces are in the area. This would wipe out any advantage the US military has against all the Middle Eastern and Central Asian countries.

Any kind of war that would destabilize Iran or bring about a regime change would be worth the price according to the US political/military planners.

Finally, if Iran is taken off the board, China will be strategically surrounded and her access to oil/gas will be compromised. Not good for China. Good for the US.

JC, could US military policy makers be so *stupid*. It is one thing for the US to get rid of Iraq’s Baathist/Sunni govt, and look at the morass that caused, or even put the frighteners on dirt poor Syria.

Shiite Iran is a very different proposition. Highly educated with a long and illustrious history, and held together with a theology, very different from the Sunni golden caliphate drivel found in the rest of the Arab world.

Iran seeks engagement and equality with the West plus nucleur weaponary, and this perspective cuts across classes, generations and internal political divisions. And also in spite of Admadinejad and the Revolutionary Guard.

Equally, and to the point, if the US was not such a captive of the Zionist lobby, it would come to recognise the fact that Shiitism is the future of Islam, while Sunnism belongs to the discredited past, Bin Laden being but the worst example.

There’s always been a mutual understanding that US needs China and China needs US. To me, the appreciation of the RMB is a way for the US to not have to rely so much on imports from China.

I can only hope that as relations get better that US Citizens’ impression of China/Chinese people change as well. Actually… I’m waitin’ for the day when all Americans will come to see Asian Americans as… Americans.

wichon said:
“I’ll take that response as equivalent to ‘I don’t really want to provide evidence for my claims. Please take them at face value.’”

No. As I said, a Beijing taxi driver told me.

My substantiation has as much validity as your comment:

wichon said:
“most Chinese believe China is tricked into buying American bonds which the Americans could at anytime default and leave China holding a bunch of worthless papers.”

A Beijing call-girl also told me about Americans defaulting on the US bonds China bought.

My sources are reliable.