In the hours since the last post the thought has repeatedly come to mind, "Chinese think things through." That is, Xi Jinping thought this through. I have thought, "Chinese over think, they don't under think." I have thought, "Chinese still decide wrongly sometimes." And then I thought, "Is this a distinction with a difference or are you contemplating your navel? Again."
Songie thought through her masked desperado appearance on Morning Sun. Songie, et al thought through "Remembrance." Deng et al thought through the Tianenman massacre. Lotta thought went into those decisions. Bird-pump decisions but considered.
Compare the present Chinese incident--Crisis? Hmm...Yeah, I think this is a crisis--with two others. Khrushchev did not think through the installation of missiles in Cuba. Right? I mean that is the most documented international crisis in the history of international crises. I assert without concern of challenge that Khrushchev was a blockhead in that instance and did not think it through. He thought he could sneak the missiles in without the U.S. knowing. Blockhead. He thought he could present JFK with a fait accompli, Blockhead, The Sequel, and he thought JFK, who he had sized up at Vienna as callow and weak, would accept the accomplished fact. A Blockhead Trinity.
That's not the present China crisis.
Compare the present China crisis to Argentina's decision to invade the Falkland Islands in 1982. Another instance of thinking an enemy could be presented with an accomplished fact. Blockhead. Another misread of an enemy leader's will. Blockhead II.
That is not the present China crisis.
Both Khrushchev and the Argentine generals took offensive action. This China thing is defensive-offensive, passive-aggressive.
So it is, to me, far on the implausibility side of things that Xi Jinping is acting as a blockhead here. I think he and the rest at the Center played this out one, two, or more steps. I think they decided on this defensive zone as an alternative to seizing the islands. Right? That would be Khrushchev/Argentine general offensive-aggressive, fait accompli lack of sufficient thought. Xi has, in effect, chosen JFK's blockade reaction as his action, inviting the U.S. et al to be the aggressor with, as the U.S. et al have done, these overflights. Xi, et al, didn't act sneakily, as Khrushchev and the Argentines did, Xi announced it publicly.
So, I hold, by a preponderance of the evidence that Xi is not a blockhead, meaning that he did not think this through, I hold that he thought this through, at least these opening gambits by both sides. It's still a bird-pump decision, but a bird-pump decision with Chinese characteristics, one of overthought, of missing the forest for the trees as we say in the West, one created by Chinese pride, insecurity, stubbornness, and a lower level of concern for human life, the latter also peculiarly Chinese for if there is a military confrontation, even a conflagration, Xi has precedent on his side. Mao Zedong contemplated a full-scale nuclear war between the U.S. and China and the Soviets with equanimity: "If two-thirds of the world's people were killed in a nuclear war, the one-third would still be socialist." Scared the shit out of those blockhead Soviets.
Songie thought through her masked desperado appearance on Morning Sun. Songie, et al thought through "Remembrance." Deng et al thought through the Tianenman massacre. Lotta thought went into those decisions. Bird-pump decisions but considered.
Compare the present Chinese incident--Crisis? Hmm...Yeah, I think this is a crisis--with two others. Khrushchev did not think through the installation of missiles in Cuba. Right? I mean that is the most documented international crisis in the history of international crises. I assert without concern of challenge that Khrushchev was a blockhead in that instance and did not think it through. He thought he could sneak the missiles in without the U.S. knowing. Blockhead. He thought he could present JFK with a fait accompli, Blockhead, The Sequel, and he thought JFK, who he had sized up at Vienna as callow and weak, would accept the accomplished fact. A Blockhead Trinity.
That's not the present China crisis.
Compare the present China crisis to Argentina's decision to invade the Falkland Islands in 1982. Another instance of thinking an enemy could be presented with an accomplished fact. Blockhead. Another misread of an enemy leader's will. Blockhead II.
That is not the present China crisis.
Both Khrushchev and the Argentine generals took offensive action. This China thing is defensive-offensive, passive-aggressive.
So it is, to me, far on the implausibility side of things that Xi Jinping is acting as a blockhead here. I think he and the rest at the Center played this out one, two, or more steps. I think they decided on this defensive zone as an alternative to seizing the islands. Right? That would be Khrushchev/Argentine general offensive-aggressive, fait accompli lack of sufficient thought. Xi has, in effect, chosen JFK's blockade reaction as his action, inviting the U.S. et al to be the aggressor with, as the U.S. et al have done, these overflights. Xi, et al, didn't act sneakily, as Khrushchev and the Argentines did, Xi announced it publicly.
So, I hold, by a preponderance of the evidence that Xi is not a blockhead, meaning that he did not think this through, I hold that he thought this through, at least these opening gambits by both sides. It's still a bird-pump decision, but a bird-pump decision with Chinese characteristics, one of overthought, of missing the forest for the trees as we say in the West, one created by Chinese pride, insecurity, stubbornness, and a lower level of concern for human life, the latter also peculiarly Chinese for if there is a military confrontation, even a conflagration, Xi has precedent on his side. Mao Zedong contemplated a full-scale nuclear war between the U.S. and China and the Soviets with equanimity: "If two-thirds of the world's people were killed in a nuclear war, the one-third would still be socialist." Scared the shit out of those blockhead Soviets.
