Without China, who will lend the US the money it needs to pursue its escapades in Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan? The Fed, by printing $Trillions?

As Doonesbury said yesterday, "Can anyone think of anything better to spend $180 million on today than Afghanistan?"

Of course, he could have said, "Can anyone think of a better reason to borrow $180 million from China...?"

I've been eagerly anticipating Doonesbury's take on the Afghanistan farce. If any issue was ever put on a silver platter for him, this is it!
http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.html?uc_full_date=20091018

Not could, would. As ugly as this marriage at times is, the divorce would leave the entire extended family in shambles. No guarantee the marriage won't take us there, but it seems to me a certainty that a divorce would.

Fascinating that some guys in a cave could set the world's agenda for the 21st century, and absolutely mind-numbing that W took the bait. The man should have studied zen before he pickled his brain, first with brain-debilitating substances (at least in the quantities he is purported to have enjoyed them), and then with the dumbest possible ideologies a POTUS could embrace. We have been one rolling farce since the Supreme Court decided to appoint him #43.

We need to elevate the currency through staged buybacks when the revenue levels are restored.

A strong dollar buys our influence.
A weak dollar sells it.

"NATO, following the CFR-introduced agenda, is campaigning
for increased cooperation with Moscow in the region to
"facilitate the fading of Russia’s lingering imperial ambitions."
These are the words of Zbigniew Brzezinski, author of the NATO
report. Surely, Putin will see through this smokescreen.

Russia has also cancelled all of Afghanistan’s Soviet-era debts
and is moving to help Kabul rebuild the Afghan infrastructure.
The increase of trade between Afghanistan and Russia, which
was at the $190 million mark in 2008, is also a move to create a
vision of Russia as an ally to the people of Afghanistan with the
US and NATO appearing as the foreign invader.

What has prompted the governments in Moscow and Beijing to
converge with the forces of NATO in Afghanistan? Is it purely a
protectionist strategy or are those governments there for the
same reason we initiated the war in 2001: an abundance of
natural resources?

China has made its moves to secure as many of the natural
resources located in Afghanistan as it can. Almost one year ago,
in November of 2008, China, acting through the China
Metallurgical Group Corporation and the Jiangxi Copper
Company, secured the Aynak Copper Mine in Logar Province.
This copper mine is reported to be the largest in the world and
has been basically inoperative since the Soviet Invasion in 1979.
China has agreed to a 2.9-billion dollar investment in the
infrastructure of the area including a power plant and possible
railroad into Pakistan. If I were an Afghan citizen, whom would I
support in my country, a nation that is actually contributing to a
better life or one that is indiscriminately bombing my fellow
citizens?

Now, when it appears our puppet Karzai may have been
influenced by a better offer from Russia, China, or both, the
Obama administration, strongly supported by the neocons, is
seeking to perhaps replace Karzai with a new election, suddenly
proclaiming the election the US just supervised to have been
corrupt"