Since the last post on China generated so much interest you may want to see my more recent comment on that post at the bottom here. You may also be interest in this article about the recent riots in China.

Strategy demands unity of the organization. As I have said before, one of Sun Tzu's main points in The Art of War is that unity rather than size or wealth is the source of strategic strength. The United States is only as powerful as it united. Unity determined by three of the five key factors: philosophy, command, and systems. Philosophy appeals to shared goals. Command is required to articulate those goals. Systems are required to get people working together toward those goals.

Over the last few days, there has been a lot of rhetoric regarding Sen. Durbin's comparison of interrogation techniques at Gitmo with Nazis, Gulags, and Pot Pol, but little I have read has made as much sense to me as this article by a former resident of the Gulag in his posting about Amnesty International.

I have pointed out before that the current battle in America between the cultural elites and America's traditions is an old, old conflict, going back to ancient Greece. What I just learned recently is that H.G. Wells, an author I admired as a boy, was one of these elites, above morality and a great supporter of all things fascist.

As long as the Democrat Party stands against traditional institutions from the church to marriage to the military to free enterprise, I believe that it is doomed. These positions amplify the voice of a very small number of Democrats and drive away a majority of traditional Democrats. It makes the Democrat charges of Republicans being "evil" sound hollow because most Americans do not believe that these traditional institutions are evil.