Ash Wyllie wrote:

In a generation the Pacific rim will be a very dangerous place.

The Atlantic carried a story a month or two back on this. One of our military
experts was quoted as saying "Getting into a war with China is easy. I can think
of several trigger points; Taiwan, for instance. The question is, how do get
yourself *out* of a war with China?"

Some points the article made -- 1) China is a nuclear power. 2) Their sub force
is increasing rapidly and could control most of the Pacific in ten years or so
if they maintain the current build rate. 3) They have a small carrier force and
are working hard at developing it. Carriers give you offensive capabilities that
nothing else will provide.

In short, in ten to twenty years, China will have offensive capacity which will
allow them to do pretty much anything they want in the Pacific and they will be
able to easily sink any surface forces we deploy against them. What they do with
this remains to be seen, of course.

George Patterson
Give a person a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a person to
use the Internet and he won't bother you for weeks.