How could the US break its neck by tripping over Iran? WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
You're assuming China is interested in using a strategy that amounts to an economic version of a suicide bombing. On a side note it seems that China has been buying a lot of mortgage securities.. I'm amused - if the really bad version of the housing crash happens the way it will look to me is that the US spent a lot of money buying shiny little consumer goods in China, China will have spent a lot of that money building up infrastructure at home, but also lots of housing in the US in the form of loans that won't get paid back.
A decision by China to crash the US economy means two things: a) the collapse of China's export led model of economic growth b) wiping out all those accumulated surpluses that they've earned due to the export boom.
Sure, it's not the only model available, so they can change. But the sudden forced transition will be at least as unpleasant for them as it will be for the US.
A pleasure I therefore claim to show, not how men think in myths, but how myths operate in men's minds without their being aware of the fact. Levi-Strauss, Claude
Also don't forget the old Chess game saying (from Aron Nimzovitch): "The threat is stronger than the execution" "Ne te courbe que pour aimer..." René Char
ie threaten to pull the plug.
In fact I would be amazed if the Chinese etc don't use the same threat to get a piece of the Great Iraqi Carve-Up (Grand Theft Babylon).
The US is about to learn that Dollars are priced in Oil, and not vice versa.
Whatever the forum for mutually accepted quasi-obligatory drawing of lines in the sand, you can call it UN(SC). *Traitor*, n. A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.
Countries can draw lines in the sand without the UN.
It does help to have somewhere where you know that not only you are being watched over where you draw lines, but also where you know that the people watching do speak the language of diplomacy and so are going to go back and tell the opposing government the correct message that you are trying to send. Life should consist in at least fifty percent pure waste of time, and the rest doing what you please.
