Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

The Scarecrow, Cowardly Lion and Tin Man are at it again, as America’s CIA Wizard of Oz manipulates his levers and sound-effects behind an opaque screen of respectability. An article by David Sauer in The Hill blares a headline that America Must Prepare for War with China over Taiwan.

Check out who produces what you read or see.

I hold myself accountable (as far as is possible) to looking into who wrote or produced a media piece that attracts my attention. That probably makes sense in a media climate where anyone is likely to say anything, delivered with great authority and a metaphoric harrumph or two.

As for David Sauer at The Hill, Dave is a retired senior CIA officer who served as chief of station and deputy chief of station in multiple overseas command positions in East Asia and South Asia. Okay as far as it goes, although ‘CIA’ chills my bones a bit, as the organization tends to see every world problem as a nail poised for its professional hammer.

Checking further, The Hill turns out to be just one of many media outlets owned by Nexstar Media Group. That piques my interest, in that Nexstar is a conglomerate that owns over 200 television stations, giving it incredible access to American homes across the country through their local news programming. Presumably, they’re all hearing that same message that we must prepare for a war against China. 200 TV stations gives it a little extra oomph, wouldn’t you think?

Our national call to war is neither a valid opinion, nor is it supported by anyone but an old hand at America’s most subversive and untrustworthy agency, the CIA. Harry Truman, one of America’s most honored presidents said his only major regret was enabling the creation of the Central Intelligence Agency. “I never would have agreed to the formulation of the Central Intelligence Agency back in forty-seven, if I had known it would become the American Gestapo.”

Watch out for the Wicked Witch of the West.

The Wicked Witch s my OZ version of who stands to profit when America goes to war. Ramping up the American war-machine in order to save Taiwan’s bacon seems a bit of a stretch. I’ve written on this before both here and here. For 70 years Taiwan has claimed to be the real China, even though they lost the post WWII Chinese Civil War and got kicked off the mainland.

But as to who profits, the military-industrial thieves stand to profit enormously if they can whip up China as a threat. And bear in mind that they are currently stumbling along without a war to keep the money rolling in. The reason I call them thieves goes back to Eisenhower—anyone remember him? He knew a thing or two about both war and its costs:

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed—Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th president of the United States

That’s thievery on as grand a scale as I can imagine.

So then, who stands to lose?

China and America, to start with. Ever since Nixon and Kissinger opened China to trade with America in 1972, our economic relationship has prospered. They are our largest producer and we are their largest market. Calling for war between the two recipients of such a mutually beneficial arrangement is madness.

But then, in all fairness, there are those who feel (and feel strongly) that madness is the CIA’s primary export. Beyond that, the majority of Taiwanese citizens barely remember the circumstances of their island ‘s Chinese history. Recently, as relations with mainland China deteriorated, mass demonstrations there supported a not China, but Taiwan mindset. For their part, the Chinese are tired to death of Taiwan claiming to be the real China, the free China.

Incredulously, David Sauer claims that “Chinese control of Taiwan will give it enormous influence over both Japan and Korea, fundamentally altering the strategic calculus in East Asia.” I’m not at all sure that’s worth a war between two major world powers, but Sauer seems to think so. One need only got back to the Kennedy administration to remember America and Russia getting their cumulative knickers in a twist over Cuba. Would ‘control over Cuba’ have given Russia ‘enormous influence’ over Canada and Mexico? One would hardly think so.

Further, Sauer claims that “perhaps most importantly, Taiwan is the center for advanced semiconductor production; the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) boasts that it has the most advanced foundry in the world. Chinese control of TSMC would provide it enormous economic benefit and would result in the world being dependent on an authoritarian regime for advanced semiconductors — and all that would mean for the integrity of supply chains. Advanced semiconductors are the petroleum of the digital age. America must not let an authoritarian regime bent on supplanting the United States seize these vital production facilities.”

Really?

So we’re supposed to go to war over a computer-chip manufactory?

Well then, I apologize. I had no idea that we in the West were unable to replicate the most advanced foundry in the world. I knew we’d pretty much gotten out of the manufacturing habit, but I hardly knew we were that crippled. Elon Musk, in cooperation with an Italian firm, has just shown his ability to produce a foundry that stamps out the world’s largest single-piece aluminum automobile chassis. Never been done before. He’s also producing his own semiconductors for Tesla automobiles.

Anyone got Elon on their speed-dial?

He just might save us all the trouble of a CIA inspired war with China.