Give War a Chance

The people of the world desperately need action on the growing hunger, pandemic, and climate crises. So what do global leaders double down on? War, nationalistic tensions. Sometimes you have to wonder if our species is meant to survive.

Why did Nancy Pelosi go to Taiwan? Not to "defend democracy." It's because the U.S. government has decided that China is now a threat to our global hegemony. The U.S. empire takes China's economic and diplomatic competition very seriously. But Saudi Arabia -- a totalitarian state as murderous and repressive as Beijing? President Biden fist-bumps those despots' bloodstained hands.

I wouldn't want to live under Chinese authoritarian rule. Like Putin's Russia, it's a noxious society and a free-thinker like me would last one day. But most of the world staggers under one iron-fisted regime or another -- many of them (most) are U.S allies. So let's be honest -- China's authoritarianism is not our problem. It's China's surging global power, which now rivals our own.

I take this personally because Nancy Pelosi is MY congressional representative. Like all San Francisco political leaders, Pelosi postures as a progressive -- and sometimes she actually is. But when it comes to imperial aggressiveness or military prowess, Pelosi is in the tank, just like the rest of the liberal elite, including our national media.

When's the last time that the United States had a real debate about our belligerent foreign policy or grotesque military spending? I'll give you a hint. It was long ago, when we got bogged down in the Vietnam War. Will it take another bloody catastrophe for this country to wake the hell up?

The Speaker of the House arrives in Taiwan.