Paradox

George W. Bush is doing his best to help global warming turn Canada into a tropical paradise and Texas into a barren wasteland (well, even more so than today). Yet he is reviled in Canada and adored in Texas. What gives?

Harnessing China's military buildup

The Pentagon has expressed concern at China's recent military build-up (even though China's upgraded military budget is still less than 20% of the US' and barely matches Japan's, when China's GDP is more like 50% of the US', adjusted for purchasing-power parity). Other Asian countries are probably watching with apprehension, given China's past attitude towards Vietnam and its friction with Japan and the Philippines.

China's navy is one of the key areas for development, specially as concerns its shallow-water capabilities, not surprising given the Taiwan strait is probably the focus of Chinese contingency planning. The US complains China's military rise threatens the fragile balance of regional security imposed by pax americana. That said, the US has done little or nothing to address what is probably one of the biggest security issues in Southeast Asia: piracy in the South China Sea, specially in the Strait of Molucca. This is puzzling as at least some of the pirates have demonstrated ties to terrorist groups like Abu-Sayyaf and Al-Qaeda, and policing the anarchic seas there is no less vital than any land-based breeding grounds or havens for terrorism.

The pirates are well-organized. They have spotters in ports to identify targets. Using fast, shallow-draft boats, they strike at night, stealing valuable cargo and often murdering the crews wholesale. China could demonstrate the kind of leadership the US has so far failed to show, and contribute its new shallow-draft navy to a cooperative effort to rid the region of the scourge of piracy, and its many soldiers could serve as hidden guards on board the ships to trap and kill attackers. America's blue-sea Navy is geared to protect international shipping lanes, not this kind of police action. The Marine Corps is stretched too thin, and does not have the manpower to put armed guards on board every ship in Molucca anyways, unlike the People's Liberation Army.

In some ways, this kind of initiative would hark back to the nascent American republic's first actions, the quelling of the Barbary pirates in the early 19th century by USS Constitution an entire ocean away in the Mediterranean.