Tuesday, February 03, 2004

 
"The Russkies Take One Up The Pipeline"
Or: "Me Chinese,
Me play joke,
MEGO- BOOM!"

(sorry, the link on Safire's "piece" doesn't seem to work, but is easily Googled)

First off, I don't buy the above as "racist," because the insult in the dialect(whether in the above or the "classic" "Me go wee-wee in your coke" version) is more than balanced by the Chinese having the last laugh. William Safire's Feb. 3, 2004 column, "A Secret Victory" was not mentioned on NRO today, but it reminded of Me(but enough about "Me;" what do you think of me, Gentle Reader? email REACTIONRY@aol.com) and my comments added to the end of the Jan. 04, 2004 piece, "Weasely Clark": "Why not add some 100,000 CyberWarriors to the Armed Services? Some, if not most would be slugs, but more than a few might be of invaluable service reviewing computer codes used for military and civilian purposes, tracing the paths of integrated circuits(hey, Joe, this targeting chip has the longitude and latitude for Peking locked out!), trying to stay ahead of Chinese hackers and Cyberguys and whatnot. This may stike one as having something of the crackpot about it, but is it really worse than the jobs program or that our vital sectors (financial etc.) will be made to function soley with US made parts 'n programs?"
The above armchair speculation was surely not original(I hadn't gotten around to clicking on the links once found on NRO warning of the dangers of outsourceing production of military components)and had not foreseen anything like Safire's piece. In brief, Safire gives a thrilling(well, *I"m* thrilled, anyway)account of how the CIA allowed the Soviets, who had been stealing enough U.S. technical goodies to keep the "Russians nearly competitive with U.S. military might through the 70s," to "steal" some computer chips the Sovs hoped would "automate the operation of the new trans-Siberian gas pipeline." Safire: "The catch: the chips would be designed to pass Soviet quality tests and then to fail in operation." He goes on to note: "The result was the most monumental non-nuclear explosion and fire ever seen from space."
I don't pretend to know how much high-tech stuff need be manufactured here to assure our civilian and defence oriented industries, and the performance of our military hardware, but the above is at least a cautionary tale with respect to all sorts of imports(including even textiles-read the issue of National Geographic which happens to also carry the piece on the great walls of China) and outsourcing.
Robinson and Derbyshire are, doubt, correct that their eyes(and that of their readers)have glazed over on the subject of trade, but, also, no doubt, lobbyists for importers such WalMart and industries threatened by foreign competition remain bright-eyed and er, Bushie and Kerry-tailed. I think that my previous post on trade, while garbled, was er, fair and balanced. However "beautiful" and complicated a mathematical model might be regarding some theoritical issue of the benefits and costs of trade, it *must* rest on a great number of (probably many unverifiable)assumptions. In the extremely crude qualitative example cited of three guys on two islands, it is *not* clear that trade would benefit some, all or none of them. Derb is certainly correct that the Constitution expressly allows for the regulation and taxation of foreign(and domestic-interstate)commerce, but my guts are with Jonah in his presumption in favor of liberty. I fear, however, that the best argument in favor of free trade is the ol' often justly derided, "slippery slope." Even with a presumption in favor of "free trade" there will be enormous pressure on politicians(exerted by voters and their cash)for all sorts of restrictions on trade, which if not resisted, could lead to no trade whatsoever.(this ain't entirely a Man In Full Straw) (Support or opposition to slippery slope arguements is highly dependant upon one's view of a given issue-I'm all for it when it comes to denouncing all kinds of "campaign finance reform" but grant it only reluctantly with the banning of "obscenity") One may be forced to hope for some minimum level of wisdom, patriotism, pragmatism and so on from our legislators and Presidents that allows us to avoid catastrophic global trade wars, going too far in the way of protecting say, domestic sugar cane and sugar beet producers, and at the same time avoiding becoming a hollowed out country incapable of defending itself. Messy-yes-but so is democracy and intractable economic questions-blah, blah, blah. And not for us here the moral clairity of illegal immigration.(seriously)
Btw., some may recall(won't bother to Google) something of a hype regarding Japan's presumed global pre-eminence during the 80s -what was that book?-"The Japan That Can Say 'No'"?( I think there was worry that we would depend upon Japanese manufactured chips for our missiles and so on) But, hey, "Eternal Vigilance" and all that......
Well, time some for some "Eyes Wide Shut"...
But wait! There's more! -While I seriously doubt that Bush was a deserter or anything like that, just had a flashback to an old televised public service message--- "Sleep well tonight; Your National Guard is AWOL." -doubt that anyone, let alone a lefty is reading this anyway....