Quote:
Originally posted by Ania:
I just made a comment about this on another post. I find it very interesting because 1) The Bush Administration really thinks that the Chinese can be played like a deck of cards. His ignorant, tough pro-US, anti-Chinese rhetoric is not going to cut it. You can not just demand anything from the Chinese and expect to get it. By doing this, the Bush administration is just making the situation worse.
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I'm kinda confused by your post because the words you used to described Dubya could actually more accurately describe the politics of China.
1) It is China who is making demands. They are demanding an apology-and what comes with that.
2) The anti-US games played by the Chinese is what made their pilot think he could re-enact scenes from "Top Gun" and not get hurt.
If the US apologizes, then what we are saying is we were wrong. If we are wrong, then we have to pay for the plane, pay for death of their pilot. Also, we would be admitting that we were wrong to fly in international waters off China's coast. That means that we would have to stop all operations in that area. (And with the Taiwan situation heating up, that would be a bad idea). Also, we wouldn't get out plane back-if we are wrong, they get to keep the evidence. We might not even get our service men and women back-if we are wrong than they are international criminals, terrorists, whatever China wants to say-and they could be put on trial - it would be all up to the Chinese.
I am not a fan of Dubya, I don't think he was bright enough to figure out the rammifications of apologizing by himself.
But I will say, whoever knew enough to keep him from apologizing was smart enough to recognize that the Chinese do not want a simple apology-it 's just the tip of an iceberg.