(To see photos of the Korean war museum in Dandong and some war products geared to the weapons industry's special market niche, go to my blog.)
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Don't get me wrong. I think that the Chinese should never have occupied Tibet. But, hey, come on. That happened back in 1959. Why are Bush and Cheney suddenly squawking about it now?
"Look at it this way," my friend Joshua just e-mailed me. "Bush and Cheney are oilmen and weapons manufacturers. That's what they do. And if your company makes half of its profit from manufacturing weapons and the other half of your profit from selling oil, then doesn't it make perfect sense to go out and start wars -- preferably on countries that have oil?"
Sounds like a good marketing strategy to me.
"So Bush and Cheney, who have been weapons manufacturers and oilmen for decades, get themselves in a position to start wars for oil. You can't teach an old dog new tricks. And this is true even of self-proclaimed 'born-again' dogs."
Good grief! America shoulda seen this coming! If we had elected a piano player for President, we coulda figured that he or she would soon have all of America playing the piano. But if you get a weapons dealer and an oil manufacturer shoved down your throats, it doesn't take an Einstein to figure out which direction our country's gonna take.
Weapons and oil.
"Okay. So Bush and Cheney attack Iraq -- and their sales shoot right up. Then they get the brilliant idea that, if profits increased by invading Iraq, then they would freaking DOUBLE if they attacked Iran." That makes perfect merchandising sense. Maximize the bottom line.
But if peddling war and oil is their company's marketing niche, then why stop at Iran? You don't need a degree from Yale Business School to figure that one out. "Are you saying that Bush and Cheney might be using the Tibet occupation issue as a strategy to drum up a war with China?"
"Sure." If you want to swim with the sharks in business, you gotta think big. Declaring war on China? It doesn't get much bigger than that in the boardroom.
"But wait," I replied. "If war for oil is a good thing, why stop with China? Back in the 18th century, didn't colonists come to America and seize all this land from the Indians? So can't Bush and Cheney declare war on Texas, Oklahoma, California, Pennsylvania and Alaska and seize all their oil on the pretext of saving Native Americans from Occupation too?" I mean after the occupation of Iran, Iraq and China of course.
But guess what? I'm over here in China right now. And I'm here to tell you that an oil war with China is gonna be extremely difficult to win, no matter how many weapons get sold.
Perhaps it's time or Bush and Cheney to realize that it also makes good business sense to not over-extend.
PS: My friend Luan just e-mailed me with a good idea. "When you go to Dandong, sign up for one of those half-day tours which takes you out to a hydro-electric dam which the Chinese built over the Yalu River. It extends over onto North Korean soil. Then when you walk across the dam there, you will actually be standing in North Korea."
That sounded like a good plan, but when I asked around about taking the tour, I was told that security on both sides of the dam had been tightened up lately and tours there were no longer available.
Stillwater is a freelance writer who hates injustice and corruption in any form but especially injustice and corruption paid for by American taxpayers. She has recently published a book entitled, "Bring Your Own Flak Jacket: Helpful Tips For Touring Today's Middle East". According to Ms. Stillwater, "It's a fabulous and entertaining book. I loved writing it. And I hope that you will love reading it too." It's available at http://www.amazon.com/Bring-Your-Own-Flak-Jacket/dp/0978615719 or you can special order it at any independent bookstore.
