[CatDawg]

Unfortunately and sadly that is a part of all military activities.

I dont think that we are done in an attempt to deal with Noth Korea. I just dont think that anybody really knows exactly how to deal with the situattion completely.

I think it's both. Can you remember the time when it seemed everything we bought had a "Made in Japan" label attached to it? The fear then was that economically "Japan would one day defeat us without firing a shot" because of the trade imbalance and the fact that they had invested heavily in US real estate and financial institutions. Although that obviously never materialized in quite that manner, I think one must be somewhat weary that we have somewhat the same but different situation with China presently. Trade wise, many of the things we that we bought from Japan has now been stamped and replaced with "Made in China" labels. Even though electronics are still bought in mass quanities from Japan they are also coming in from Korea,India, and China as well. It used to be, with what I'll refer to as trinkets, all came with a Japan stamp. I now cant remember the last time I have seen anything on those type items that does not say China on it. China, as you mentioned, has not only loaned us money, but they are investing heavily into the same areas that Japan once did as well. The big difference is with China we are dealing with a Communist regime as opposed to the friendly Japanese stucture that we helped to install. Japan's military force (although US friendly) would never be able to match the nuclear armed, billion man force of the Red Army. I really dont know if our's could either. So, in those thoughts, Japan never ever posed the threat that China does. We never really had to fear a military threat from Japan, because we could still basicly control that factor added to the fact that they are greatly inferior. However , this is a completely different animal and is a situation, greatly because of the general overall instability and vulnerability of the US economy, that this could very well be a financial empire that could very well bring the US to their knees. Then, you could throw Chinese military capabilities into the equation. Botton line, and to answer your question, I would think that the situation that we are currently in financially has to weigh very heavily into how we negotiate and deal with Communist China on many issues. Very particularly North Korea. From what I understand, China does not condone the activities of North Korea, but I dont think they are about to let the United States come into North Korea and pose a close proximity challenge to US dominance in the area. I think they'll take care of the North Korea problem on their own, if it comes down to that.

I agree and they know that no matter how big North Korea gets they won't be a threat to China, however, if the US got a larger stronghold on the Korean Pennisula that would be a totally different story. We must not forget that Taiwan plays a large part in all this as well.