Of course, the waste, while awful in itself, is only part of the problem. The other is the very real possibility that "in an effort to avoid waste", a few thousands of nuclear weapons will actually be used some day.
>Meanwhile, while in Singapore a few days ago Secretary of War Donald Rumsfeld "observed" that China's fast-growing spending on weapons was very worrisome in view of the fact that China has no known enemies.
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>Funny, but the U.S. also has no known enemies and its spending tops the bunch!
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>By the way, Secretary Rumsfeld couldn't have been including terrorists as "enemies" because he knows that China does have a terrorist problem too. And I doubt that aircraft carriers and missiles and B1 bombers are the tools that are going to solve the terrorist problems of any nation.
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>But I do conclude that China is just wasting its money on arms because it is being ushered in as "the next super-power" and is going to help the (currently) rich "west" self-destruct as all the $$$ heads to China in search of ever greater profits regardless of consequences.
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>cheers
Difference in opinions hath cost many millions of lives: for instance, whether flesh be bread, or bread be flesh; whether whistling be a vice or a virtue; whether it be better to kiss a post, or throw it into the fire... (from Gulliver's Travels)