Thursday, May 06, 2010

Green Light?

President Ma of Taiwan refuses to accept the defense establishment's walking back of his original statement that Taiwan would never ask America to intervene should China attack Taiwan. Said Ma:

Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou on Wednesday defended comments he made about the island's ability to defend itself, insisting the United States would not get dragged into any war with China.

Good grief. Has nobody explained to Ma the concept of deterrence? Does he really think his tiny country can build up military strength sufficient to defeat China if China resorts to full blown, all-out war?

Comments more ambiguous than that by our Secretary of State which placed South Korea outside our defense perimeter led to the Korean War.

And has nobody mentioned to Ma how April Glaspie's less than firm statements to Saddam led Saddam to wrongly believe he had the green light to invade Kuwait, which Saddam considered rightly to be Iraq's 19th province?

Ma Ying-jeou is playing with fire, and seems too dense or ideological to correct his very dangerous statement. It can only increase the risk for war, since it is in our interest to stop China from conquering Taiwan whether or not Taiwan wants us to intervene.