That's not only because the U.S. government financed the war with borrowings from China, but also because while we were distracted, Beijing has been a busy bee diplomatically, especially in East Asia.One, I hope you feel the same disgust for Obama's efforts to increase our indebtedness to the Middle Kingdom - his fondness for unfunded entitlements and the torpidity of the welfare state will do more to drive us into insolvency than Bush's 'freedom' agenda. And two, do you really believe China would be doing anything differently if we hadn't gone into Iraq? The Mideast is in play for China just as it was for the USSR - the only thing that would have altered that dynamic in a positive way for us is if the war had been prosecuted with more 'efficiency' - not going in may have shuffled the deck but the cards would remain largely the same, except that instead of dealing with political instability in Iraq we'd be caught up in the absurdist theater of Saddam and Sons - certainly Iran would still be pursuing the bomb.
And this whole notion of America being 'distracted' is nonsense - if America cannot juggle several balls at once then it's no longer a super power, and if one wants to have that argument, fine - but you don't seem to be arguing that. The charge of being 'distracted' has turned into another empty cliche the left likes to roll out when it's Bush bashing time..."
