Naw, Russia and China with no strategic interests in a GWOT
“Police in Ingushetia Tell Of Rebel Assailants’ Skill And Lethal Ruthlessness: Attacks by bands of Islamic insurgents were well planned and coordinated,” by C.J. Chivers, New York Times, 27 June, p. A5.
“China Pays a Price for Cheaper Oil: Sulfur-Laden Fuels Contribute to Growing Pollution Problem,” by Keith Bradsher, NYT, 27 June, p. B1.
The Russians are getting worried that the Muslim insurgents they’re facing down south are looking more and more professional and organized. On NPR Thursday night the Atlantic Monthly’s senior editor Jack Beatty mocked my notion that the U.S. and Russia might have common interests in a Global War on Terrorism against Islamic extremists, saying they were too busy with their own Islamic problems. But guess what? When that problem starts looking way more organized than it did a while back, the overlap of interests might seem a bit more apparent—even to magazine editors.
As for China and energy, surely there’s no overlap there with a GWOT which has an avowed goal of transforming the Middle East? Higher oil prices mean the “sweet” stuff (lower sulfur content and thus less pollutive) goes to the highest bidders, which doesn’t include China. So they get by primarily by buying the cheaper “sour” stuff with higher sulfer-content. What that pinch does to China is raise its already disastrously high pollution content in major urban areas. Think that’s gonna matter in a country facing a five-fold increase in cars in the next two decades?
No Mr. Beatty, China has no interest in helping America bring stability to the Middle East. None whatsoever.