by Frank Li
This recent post (“Countering China, US sets training in Australia”) set me on fire. Here are my three simple messages to my fellow Americans:
(1) China is a competitor, not an enemy!
(2) We, the U.S., have too many enemies already! The last thing we need is to make yet another new enemy, be it China or any other country!
(3) We have been spending too much on military, often disguised as defense spending and ridiculously wasteful and unaccountable. This excess, as epitomized by the two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, has significantly contributed to the fact that we, as a country, are broke!Below are five excerpts from my five previous publications relevant to the subject:
(1) In this post (“The answer is democracy; the question is why”), I stated:
“we, the U.S., have actually been the source of instability in the world after the Cold War … Today our defense spending is bigger than the next 16 biggest spending countries combined!”
(2) In this post (“What’s the real cost of the Iraq war?”), I stated:
“which country benefited most from the Iraq war? Regionally, Iran, obviously! Globally, China! … The U.S. defense industry is so well entrenched that it has to have enemies to survive. After the Cold War, the obvious pick was China, with all kinds of accusations from communism to human rights. However, most of these accusations went away with the Iraq war. China rapidly moved forward (without much distraction from the U.S.) and has doubled its GDP since then.”
(3) In this post (“The American Presidency: let’s redefine it, now!”), I stated:
“What was so special about the year 2000? The world had changed so much after the Cold War ended in 1989 that 2000 turned out to be a tipping point, with the emerging economies, especially China, becoming formidable competitors to the West – like never before … America, on the other hand, has not adapted accordingly after 1989: America’s foreign and economic policy has not adequately changed. The political system has hardly changed at all over more than 200 years. By 2000, America had not only more economic competitors than ever, but also more political enemies (e.g. Islamic extremists) than ever.”
(4) In this post (“What did Ronald Reagan mean?”), I stated:
“After two disastrous Presidents in George W. Bush and Barack Obama, today, America has not only even more economic competitors and political enemies than in 2000, but also much stronger duals than in 2000!”
(5) In this post (“My country is in trouble”), I stated:
“cut the defense spending dramatically. If not, we will have no country left to defend!”
Why are we so out-of-control in military spending, way beyond the need of self-defense? It’s the political system, stupid! First of all, there is the deep entrenchment of the defense industry. Then, as you would expect, there are many war hawks in the military. Finally, there are the jobs and votes for the career politicians!
How to fix the problem? Change the political system!
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About the Author
Frank Li is the Founder & President of W.E.I. (West-East International), a Chicago-based import & export company. Frank received his B.E. from Zhejiang University (China) in 1982, M.E. from the University of Tokyo in 1985, and Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University in 1988, all in Electrical Engineering. He worked for several companies until 2004, when he founded his own company W.E.I. Today, W.E.I. is a leader in the weighing industry not only in products & services, but also in thought and action. Dr. Li writes extensively and uniquely on politics, for which he has been called “a modern-day Thomas Jefferson” (see page 31).
