Informant38

Protecting our assets in space

Not that China is actually mentioned in the public, unclassified budget documents:

"The Fiscal Year 2009 defense budget request sustains the president's commitment to growing US ground forces that are needed to prevail in the current conflicts in Iran and Afghanistan," a Pentagon press release notes. Additional funds are allocated for "operations, readiness and support" - troop training, replacement parts and equipment, combat supplies, and so on.

But a close examination of the FY 2009 request indicates that the principal sources of future budget growth are not the "war on terror" or other such low-intensity contingencies but rather preparation for all-out combat with a future superpower. Probe a little deeper into Pentagon thinking, and only one potential superpower emerges to justify all this vast spending: the People's Republic of China.

Asia Times 08.Mar.08