ent get tough in this instance. I would go so far as to say we should beat them to the punch by sending our fleet and more troops to Taiwan now. This would increase our presence and could use their own scare tactics to get them to back off from Taiwan. It would put the good cards into our hands and it would make it very difficult for the Chinese to order the attack. I don’t think that it would be over-aggressive on our part because they have directly threatened a country that we are sworn to protect. The uproar such an action by the U.S. would cause in the U.N. would be trivial given the fact that we would be acting alone. The U.N. is virtually powerless without the U.S. anyway, so it is likely that they would back us up as they did in the Gulf War. If we really wanted to put China in its place we would attack China, put down the communist regime and make the government of Taiwan the government of all China and help them restructure the country successfully. We would eliminate communism, liberate the Chinese people, and give Taiwan more resources with which to become an even greater economic power. This would give us free trade with the good guys and they would probably gain entry into the WTO as well, it would be a win-win situation for everyone; hostilities would be gone, trade would be opened up, and Japan might even get a clue and let our products into their country. We would also gain a very strong ally much the same way we did in Japan and Germany.If we act now and get aggressive with China we do face the possibility of military defeat, and that would be a disaster. We would take on a seriously bad reputation and we would lose serious clout in the international arena. But China can’t take us because our military and allies are much stronger5. They will lose in a war and they are still provoking it. Taiwan still wants independence and they will get it eventually no matter what sort of statements China make...
