12-13-2019, 05:39 PM
** 13-Dec-2019 World View: Carlos Gutierrez says that China is not an enemy
As I've written in the past, people my age have wondered our whole
lives how it was possible for Hitler to so thoroughly fool the British
people and politicians that they were not a threat, with Winston
Churchill being the major exception. Prime Minister Neville
Chamberlain met with Hitler and famously announced that there would be
"Peace in our time."
This morning, George Bush's Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez was on
CNBC to talk about the China trade deal, and he used the opportunity
to criticize administration officials who are worried about war
with China. Here's what he said (my transcription):
I wanted to quote this because the reasoning is so totally
harebrained, but is typical of the reasoning among media and
politicians today, many of whom majored in women's studies and
sociology in college and have no clue what's going on in the world.
Gutierrez is old enough to know better, but apparently he doesn't.
Notice that Gutierrez is going a lot farther than even Neville
Chamberlain did. Gutierrez made these points:
In other words, if China launches a military attack on the United
States, then it's not China's fault. It's the fault of Navarro
and Bannon and people in the Trump administration.
And yet, for almost a century, the Soviet Union / Russia was called a
strategic enemy by people like Gutierrez, and are still doing so
today. And yet, we haven't had a war with Russia during that entire
century.
People like Gutierrez might say that we should simply shut down the
US military, because we should never view anyone as an enemy, so there
should never be another war, so who needs a military?
Here's a memory from 1938:
-- 1930s / British Girls in the Third Reich - 'We Had the Time of
Our Lives'
http://www.spiegel.de/international/euro...05617.html
(Der Spiegel, 13-Jun-2013)
As I've written in the past, people my age have wondered our whole
lives how it was possible for Hitler to so thoroughly fool the British
people and politicians that they were not a threat, with Winston
Churchill being the major exception. Prime Minister Neville
Chamberlain met with Hitler and famously announced that there would be
"Peace in our time."
This morning, George Bush's Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez was on
CNBC to talk about the China trade deal, and he used the opportunity
to criticize administration officials who are worried about war
with China. Here's what he said (my transcription):
Quote: I don't believe, as some people in this administration
believe, that war with China is inevitable, and I think that's a
very dangerous assumption, very dangerous to believe that is the
future, because we can just make it happen by insisting on it. ...
There's [Peter] Navarro, [Steve] Bannon -- they believe that a
military war eventually is inevitable. By calling China a
strategic rival -- I mean they're a rival, there's no question,
they're a competitor -- but if they're strategic that means that
we believe they're an existential threat. And if you call someone
an enemy, they will become your enemy. So we need to be careful,
and I hope that at this point, we keep the war in the confines of
economics and the confines of trade.
But this could get out of hand so easily, and yes, there are
people who I believe just see that in the future it is inevitable
that we're headed toward conflict. I think that's a dangerous
assumption.
I wanted to quote this because the reasoning is so totally
harebrained, but is typical of the reasoning among media and
politicians today, many of whom majored in women's studies and
sociology in college and have no clue what's going on in the world.
Gutierrez is old enough to know better, but apparently he doesn't.
Notice that Gutierrez is going a lot farther than even Neville
Chamberlain did. Gutierrez made these points:
- China is not a strategic enemy.
- You must not call China an enemy because doing so is
dangerous.
- Therefore, if there is a war, then it's your fault because you
said that China is a strategic enemy.
In other words, if China launches a military attack on the United
States, then it's not China's fault. It's the fault of Navarro
and Bannon and people in the Trump administration.
And yet, for almost a century, the Soviet Union / Russia was called a
strategic enemy by people like Gutierrez, and are still doing so
today. And yet, we haven't had a war with Russia during that entire
century.
People like Gutierrez might say that we should simply shut down the
US military, because we should never view anyone as an enemy, so there
should never be another war, so who needs a military?
Here's a memory from 1938:
- 1938: English girls giving Nazi salute returning from a field
trip to Berlin - 'We had the time of our lives!' (Der
Spiegel)
-- 1930s / British Girls in the Third Reich - 'We Had the Time of
Our Lives'
http://www.spiegel.de/international/euro...05617.html
(Der Spiegel, 13-Jun-2013)