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Paul B. Farrell
Feb. 8, 2011, 12:01 a.m. EST
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Wikileaks vs. Wall Street in a war for our souls
First Take "º
No room for wildcatters
By Paul B. Farrell, MarketWatch
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Ca;if. (MarketWatch) "” Yes, Americans love war. Yes, wars cost money. And pile on debt, new taxes. Still, we love war. Why else let the military budget burn 48% of your tax dollars? But why is it "off the table" when the GOP talks "deficit cuts?"
Why? We love war. We'd rather attack with a macho battle cry like "damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" than listen to a warning from historian Kevin Phillips: "Most great nations, at the peak of their economic power, become arrogant, wage great world wars at great cost, wasting vast resources, taking on huge debt, ultimately burning themselves out."
Cambodian and Thai troops clashed for a fourth straight day in the border area around the disputed 11th-century Prear Vihear temple.
Which dominates our Congressional deficit hawks? Which is China's military strategy?
Admit it, we love war. Marine Corps posters grabbed me as a kid. Trained me as an aviation weapons system tech. So I couldn't resist Erik Sofge's edgy thriller, "China's Secret War Plan," about a China-U.S. war. Like a fast-paced Tom Clancy thriller. In Popular Mechanics: One of my favorites as a kid working in a small-town magazine store.
Yes, war's popular. Locked in our DNA long ago. Sofge's thriller was based on war games played by Pentagon generals and Rand Corporation strategists.
Americans love war. Can't resist video games, war movies: "Hunt for Red October," "Platoon," "Dirty Dozen," "Star Wars," "Terminator." War turns us on, a testosterone virus in our brains. Our love blinds us to costs, collateral damage, unintended consequences, new debt for our kids. Besides, they'll grow up loving war. DNA is passed on. Can't resist.
That hot button was pushed recently with "secret" photos of China's new stealth bomber exposed during the state visit of China's President Hu Jintao. Sofge's thriller begins:
August 9, 2015, 0400. China's war for "Taiwan starts in the early morning. There are no naval bombardments or waves of bombers "¦ 1,200 cruise and ballistic missiles rise from heavy vehicles on the Chinese mainland ... Taiwan's modest missile defense network. a scattered deployment of I-Hawk and Patriot interceptors, slams into dozens of incoming warheads "¦ a futile gesture. The mass raid overwhelms the defenses as hundreds of Chinese warheads blast the island's military bases and airports."
The GOP wants to cut America's massive debt. But "off-the-charts" military spending is "off the table." Back in the "?40s WWII consumed 57% of our GDP. Today, war eats up about half America's budget.
We're sinking under Iraq war debt. Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz estimates Iraq at $3 trillion, with $2 trillion for future costs, like VA medical. The Afghan war maybe another $3 trillion. Plus endless terrorist threats. Future wars are "planned" years, even decades in advance, strategies based on Pentagon-Rand war games.
America talks peace. But deep inside our collective brain is a dark monster: We're little kids who love playing war. Age 10 I had a collection of model fighter planes, played air wars. Age 15, owned three guns for hunting. Then the Corps. Like a moth to the flames, we cannot resist our destiny in war. Sofge brings alive the action in our brains:
"Taiwan's air force is grounded "¦ Taiwanese troops mobilize in downtown Taipei and take up positions on the beaches facing China, just 100 miles to the west. But they know what the world knows: This is no longer Taiwan's fight. This is a battle between an old superpower and a new one." Games or reality, it's all in our heads.
Or is this how WWIII starts? Between an aging America that loves war, won't surrender without a fight, and the world's rapidly emerging superpower, predicted to have a population one billion larger than America's by 2050. Plus an economy 40% of the world's GDP, dwarfing America's GDP predicted to fall to just 14%. Yes, China's the emerging new superpower, a crafty enemy laughing as we waste our economic resources.
Listen as Sofge quotes retired Rear Adm. Eric McVadon, former naval attaché in Beijing: "They are obsessed with Taiwan. On some given day, it's entirely possible for people to be standing around a table in the Politburo in Beijing, and someone gets the ball rolling. And when it stops, we're at war."
Paul Farrell writes the column on behavioral economics. He's the author of nine books on personal finance, economics and psychology, including "The Millionaire Code," "The Winning Portfolio," "The Lazy Person's Guide to Investing." Farrell was an investment banker with Morgan Stanley; executive vice president of the Financial News Network; executive vice president of Mercury Entertainment Corp; and associate editor of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner. He has a Juris Doctor and a Doctorate in Psychology.
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4:30 p.m. Feb. 7, 2011
"Secret China war plan: trillions in U.S. debt http://on.mktw.net/guMVN3" 12:42 a.m. EST, Feb. 8, 2011 from MKTWFarrell
"Wikileaks vs. Wall Street in a war for our souls http://on.mktw.net/eajuvw" 12:59 a.m. EST, Feb. 1, 2011 from MKTWFarrell
"The Super Rich at Davos: 40 years of disaster http://on.mktw.net/hOVA1V" 12:23 a.m. EST, Jan. 25, 2011 from MKTWFarrell
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