🚀 go-pugleaf

 Its all well and good to say the troops are going to the Balkans not 
becauseof national interest or the facts on the ground but rather as a result 
of political one up manship with the French and because of the political (in 
theory) aid to Clinton's re-election a military venture might bring.

The deed is done. There will be nothing gained on the ground that is not 
ephemerial  if the troops can manage to get out in time for next years 
elections. Those folks will go on fighting forever much as a volcano 
shoots lava not just because it has  magma in a chamber but because it sits on 
a fault line.

The earth moves but God remains the same. With NATO, Russian, 
and UN troops all side by side the object of this game is to close the 
book on the 20th century and form the basis of a world wide "entente cordiale" 
before the growing power of the Chinese going out into the next 
century. The theory is that the greater the peace is among nations--the 
better are the chances of integrating China peacefully into the world 
community--even as the power of that country grows relative to its 
neighbors. The completion of the mission and the theoretical exit of the 
troopsfrom the Balkens will come just before the great coming out party for 
the Chinese in 1997.

The Chinese takeover of Hong Kong is the party cake. With that takeover, 
the Chinese will suddenly appear as a great collosus astride Asia.

The entry and exit from the Balkins and the take over of Hong Kong are 
susposed to go off without a hitch.

What can go wrong? Just about everything.  Consider a whimsical name. 
Pennsyltucky. This is about  Pennsylvania and Kentucky 
looked like to the French in 1750 when these were border areas about 
their New Norld posessions and British trading ships had only recently plied 
the waters about Cathay.

In alt.immigration the talk is mostly about immigration into California. 
Can California stand  a half million-to one million or so Hong Kong 
Chinese when the mainlanders take power?  The Chinese can come through 
U.S. emmigration laws as political refugees. The discussion in 
alt.immigration also turns to the subject of Vancouver. The Chinese there 
will discuss the impact of 750,000 to onemillion new Chinese entering 
into Vancouver in order to keep their money safefrom the bureaucrats in 
Beijing. The Canadians have a policy that is an open door to the Chinese 
if they come in with enough money. 

How will this impact on Quebec? What will the Quebecers think when they 
see 1 million Chinese pile into Vancouver. After the election it was pretty 
clear that one of the motives for the Quebecers urge to sovereignty was that 
the Anglo Canadians had lost control of the borders.  The Quebecers don't 
want tobe swamped by foreigners. Nor would the Anglo Canadian idea of selling 
their birthright to pay for budget deficits--seem prudent. Should Quebec vote 
out of Canada in  1997, what kind of precedent would that set for other non 
English speaking peoples in North America...certainly one of the effects of 
the Bosnian peace is to deligitimize a North American war like the one Abe 
Lincoln fought to hold the states together.

How ham handed are the Chinese bureaucrats?  In alt.politics.org.un 
mainlanders their sympathizers and the Tiawanese and their sypathizers 
argued over Taiwan's status before their elections a couple weeks back. The 
mainlanders talk was mostly brutal and stupid. The chances of the newly 
democratically elected government in Hong Kong as being anything more 
than a straw man for British Honor and Ideals are not great. It would be 
natural for Hong Kong Chinese to see any ham handed Beijing military or 
political maneuvers as a threat to their money. It would be just as natural 
for the bureaucrats in Beijing to want to assert their power.

How reliable are the French as allies? The great feat of Charles De 
Gaulle was to keep the France from drowning after the Algerian War and the 
general'scoup.  He pulled France out of NATO and set France on a course at 
odds with both the US and the Soviet Union. France's reintegration into NATO 
is coming at a time of growing instability on their southern border and a 
decline in the power of the left. France's elite is committed to cutting a 
huge budget deficit in a short period of time to bring their currency in line 
with the Deutchmark as per Maisstricht provisions for a Eurodollar in 1999. 
This will cause great dislocations in France. Who will take the blame? The 
Algerians more than likely and that at a time when Algeria is locked in a 
civil war over issues that are somewhat symetrical in nature. Therefore, any 
delay in the US pull out from the Balkins will increase US exposure to the 
fallout from troubles (read scorned and bitter Algerians put out to sea)in 
France. 
 
Yet barring a miracle the issue for the next century will not be 
instability in Europe but rather instability in North America. Miracle, 
however, is the operant word here. Miracle was what was officially barred by 
the Enlightenment French after the loss of their New World posessions. 
Miracle was also abandoned by the Russians in 1917. Miracle has never 
been recognized by the Chinese. . 

A swift and graceful exit from Bosnia also requires some 
Russian sympathy for their own self interest as much their western 
territories show up as Chinese on Chinese military maps of the world. Or 
rather some favorable  measure of who is the lesser evil--the East or the 
West...which to Russian eyes isn't so clear. The communists recently took 
a larger block of the electorate than usual.

Prayer is appropriate. 


Father God, I pray in Jesus name that the Holy Spirit will enable the 
leaders

of the world and especially in the U.S. & Canada to act with wisdom  
restraint and courage.