Bunker busting bombs to a country that doesn't need them?
Topic: Israel

AP:

Here's a very interesting story, which will no doubt go un-noticed by the media, but not the rest of the world.

"The Bush administration has authorized the sale of as many as 100 large bunker-buster bombs to Israel. One expert said the move should serve as a warning to Iranians with nuclear ambitions...

"This proposed sale will contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to improve the security of a friendly country that has been, and continues to be, an important force for economic progress in the Middle East," the Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a press release."

An "important force for economic progress?"

How does selling Israel something they don't need help "economic progress?"

Oh, now I see:

"The proposed deal (would be) worth as much as $30 million." And then they can resell it to the highest bidder, like they do with all the stuff we sell them. India? China? Pakistan?

On the win, win side:

The deal "would provide Israel with the capability to drop 5,000-pound bombs that can penetrate bunkers and other buried structures. The GBU-28 bombs can be dropped from Israel's American-made F-15 fighters."

How convenient! But here's the real deal.

"The Israelis want to be able to attack Iran's underground nuclear weapons facilities," said John Pike, a military expert at Globalsecurity.org in Alexandria, Va.

The propose sale should give notice to Tehran that the United States will not allow Iran to become a nuclear power if diplomatic efforts fail, he said."

So, we can't do it so we'll leave it to the Israelis.

Remember the Don Imus interview It's all starting to make sense.

Imus: "Why don't we make Israel do it?" [Take out Iran's nukes program.]

Cheney: "Well, one of the concerns people have is that Israel might do it without being asked...If, in fact, the Israelis became convinced the Iranians had a significant nuclear capability, given the fact that Iran has a stated policy that their objective is the destruction of Israel, the Israelis might well decide to act first, and let the rest of the world worry about cleaning up the diplomatic mess afterwords."

Well, that leaves it up to us. We might be cleaning more up more than a diplotmatic mess though. Another 9-11 after this type of attack might buck up Bush's approval ratings. Right around the mid-term elections would do wonders!

We never make mistakes. Only the little countries do.
Topic: U.S. Military issues.

The BBC:

"An Italian journalist who was held hostage in Iraq has criticised a US military report into the killing of the agent who helped secure her release.
Italian Nicola Calipari was shot by US forces at a checkpoint as he escorted Giuliana Sgrena to Baghdad's airport.

US investigators are said to have found that the troops were "not culpable", in a report which Italy has not endorsed. [The Italians beg to differ.]

"The greatest disappointment would be if our authorities were to accept this insult without reacting," Ms Sgrena wrote in a front page editorial in her newspaper, Il Manifesto.

"All the words said about Calipari would turn into hypocrisy... and Nicola would have been our government's hero, just for one day."

Imagine if this was an American and he had just saved an American woman hostage! Strange, though, the timing of the story on the report. A few days earlier and Silvio Berlusconi would have been right in the middle of forming a new government. I'm sure it's just coincidental.

Everybody get's off scott-free in the U.S. military it seems. Especially fighter pilots. That must be the preception around the world.

Remember the "cablecar" incident in 1999? It's deja vu all over again

The Guardian:

"A tidal wave of anti-American fury was building up in Italy last night (Thursday) after it was learnt that a court martial in the USA had acquitted the pilot whose plane cut through a cable car line last year sending 20 passengers to their death.

A US military jury in North Carolina yesterday acquitted Richard Ashby, a marine captain who was piloting the Navy ?Prowler? jet that sliced through cables at a ski-resort in a valley near Cavalese in the Italian Alps on February 3 last year."

Or who could forget the straffing incident in Afghanistan that killed Canadian soldiers

CNN:

"A military hearing officer Thursday recommended against court-martialing two U.S. pilots who killed four Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan last year in a friendly-fire bombing one of the men blamed on the "fog of war."

Although Col. Patrick Rosenow said there was enough evidence to court-martial both pilots, he said "non-judicial or administrative punishment would maintain the interests of good order and discipline." Rosenow presided over the nine-day investigative hearing in January."

And then of course there's the big whitewash in the Abu Ghraib scannal.

WaPo:

"An Army inspector general's report has cleared senior Army officers of wrongdoing in the abuse of military prisoners in Iraq and elsewhere, government officials familiar with the findings said yesterday.

The only Army general officer recommended for punishment for the failures that led to abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison and other facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan is Brig. Gen. Janis L. Karpinski [Scapegoat/woman.], who was in charge of U.S. prison facilities in Iraq as commander of the 800th Military Police Brigade in late 2003 and early 2004. Several sources said Karpinski is expected to receive an administrative reprimand for dereliction of duty.

...the inspector general's was designed to be the Army's final word on the responsibility of senior leadership in relation to the abuses. It was the only investigation designed to assign blame, if any, within the Army's senior leadership."

So that's that. A few NCOs and PFCs get the hammer and the big shots get a pass.

BBQ pork is off the menu, but there's oil for all!
Topic: The Saudis

The WaPo reports today the president seeks relief from the Saudis.

We're seeking releif from the mainspring of terroristim in the world. America standing tall!

What about terrorism anyway? "Bush's White House-based homeland security adviser, Fran Townsend, is meeting with her Saudi counterparts on the sidelines." Wouldn't want to offend his royal highness, his hands are on the spigot.

"The global cost of oil will be at the top of Bush's agenda..." Of course, what elese would you talk to the Saudis about?

But the "president...said he's looking for "a straight answer" on how close the Saudis are to reaching production capacity. "I don't think they're pumping flat out," Bush said." [Who would know better about pumping oil?]

There will be no press conference at the ranch. Seems "Abdullah rarely talks with reporters." When you're a total autocrat, you don't have to.

Never mind, though, we're all friends. The Post goes on, "despite the difficult matters, Robert Jordan, a former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, said the stage is set for a much friendlier meeting Monday than three years ago when Abdullah first visited the ranch

What the Post forgot to mention is that Robert Jordan worked for Baker-Botts who are defending the Saudis against the 9-11 families who are suing the Saudis for 9-11. And, oh by the way, he was Bush's lawyer when he was under investigation by the SEC for that "mix up" over his Harkin Energy Stocks.

Michael Isikoff in Newsweek wrote in 2003:

"April 16 - After months of working below the radar, a huge U.S. legal team hired by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has sprung into action and begun a major counteroffensive against a landmark lawsuit seeking $1 trillion in damages on behalf of the victims of the September 11 terror attacks.

Baker Botts, a prestigious Houston-based law firm, filed a motion on behalf of Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, the Saudi defense minister. Baker Botts, Sultan’s law firm, for example, still boasts former secretary of State James Baker as one of its senior partners. Its recent alumni include Robert Jordan, the former personal lawyer for President Bush who is now U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia."

Dana Milbank wrote of the Harkin investigation:

"During the SEC investigation, which occurred while his father was president, Bush was represented by Robert Jordan, who'd been a law partner of Doty at the Baker Botts firm. Bush named Jordan ambassador to Saudi Arabia last year."

Nice little circle there. James Baker, the Saudis, Robert Jordan, corruption at a Bush owned oil company, 9-11, the Saudis....

See the "religious policeman" for more on the warm and snuggly Saudi family and their enlightened rule from someone who lives there.

An idea whose time has gone.
By The New York Times

"WASHINGTON, April 22 - Leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee have urged Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to seek a formal invitation from the new Iraqi government for American troops to remain until domestic security forces are capable of fully defending their country.

A letter on April 18 from Senator John W. Warner of Virginia, the Republican committee chairman, and Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, the ranking Democrat, argued that the initiative could "substantially reduce the daily threats to U.S., coalition and Iraqi security forces.""

Is it just me or does this sound deeply out of touch with reality? What they should be doing is formally declaring the U.S. has no territorial or oil interests in Iraq to start with. That might help take the wind out of the insugency's sails a little.

A formal invite from the Iraqi "governemnt" will be seen for the empty gesture it would be. That's like Karzai asking us for a security pact. Or the Sudaten German's asking for Hitler's help against the Chechs. [We want no Chechs!.]

South Florida Sucks!

Oh, the memories!

Hours after the "Jackbooted Thugs" [Quote from Tom DeLay.], (who we now refer to as hero's in the war on terrorism), had taken Elian from his family's home in Miami this post appeared at freerepublic.com

"Daivid," a towering intellect writes:

The local CBS affiliate (channel 4) and the local Univision affiliate (channel 23) have interviewed photography experts explaining that the ?happy? picture of Elian meeting with his dad is a fake. They have pointed out to several reasons for their conclusion, such as:

1. Elian had a very short haircut, almost a fade, this morning before the raid. After the raid, the ?happy? pictures show Elian with much longer hair on the sides and a different bang cut on his forehead.

2. The shades from Elian?s father and Elian do not match. For example, the father looks very dark while Elian looks almost pale. Elian plays outside every day in Florida sun, the father stays indoors, therefore Elian should look darker than his dad

3. The reflection of Elian?s father on Elian is suspect. It only occurs on Elian?s face but not on his body, at least at the same degree."

Well, there you go! Certainly, Miami's hysterical T.V. stations couldn't be making this up. Besides, Marisleysis said it! She's not crazy or anything. She knows things!!!

Just when you thought it couldn't get any crazier!

Then, of course, days before the seizure of the baby Elian, Alex Penelas, then mayor of Miami-Dade county, [Now residing in the political wilderness.] warned the federal Government he wouldn't police the streets if violence broke out. (Not that the "exile" community in Miami would ever get violent! See below.)

At a frantic press conference the mayor said:

(cubanet.org)

"The federal government is provoking the community," Penelas said. "We do not condone inappropriate behavior. But I have a responsibility to tell the federal government when they've gone too far. And they've gone too far.

"If the Justice Department's handling of this matter . . . leads to civil unrest and violence," he said, "we are holding the [federal] government responsible.

Penelas...said that local law enforcement officers would not assist federal authorities in "repatriating the boy."

Weeks later on Nightline, when he was sitting right in front of Janet Reno, he was asked by Ted Koppel whether he blamed her for what happened. He just sunk down in his seat and made gibbering noises. Most of the program involved citizens of Miami-Dade berating the mayor for pandering to one segment of the community, ignoring the rest.

We're not violent! (Miami Vice is just a T.V. show.)

(CNN)

"Miami residents are bracing for a threatened one-day general strike by many of the city's 800,000 member Cuban-American community to protest the raid removing 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez from the home of his Miami relatives. [It was a little difficult getting around for a few days because of all the roadblocks etc.]

Protesters predicted Tuesday's threatened general strike would turn the city into a "dead zone," [Wonder why Miami is one of the poorest cities in the U.S.?] while Miami City Manager Donald Warshaw said the day would simply be "business as usual."

Some demonstrators threw rocks at police and others set fires in the streets. More than 200 people were arrested, according to police.

How do "some demonstrators" wind up in 200 arrests?
In most places this would have been called a riot, but in Miami it's just "business as usual." After all, the "exile" community was letting off a little steam. They were angry. Miami-Dade is a county of some million people, most of them not Cuban, but we all had to put up with their little temper tantrum.

Jim Mullin of the Miami New Times wrote on the 20th of April of local leaders being concerned about the perception around the country that Miami's Cubans operated by "mob rule." Nothing could be further from the truth.

Mullin compiled a list of about 70 violent acts, including bombings, assassinations and a bazooka attack, dating from 1968 to 2000 involving Cubans in Miami.

Check the link for all of them, but I picked out a few to illustrate the point that Miami isn't ruled by Mob Rule.

1968 From MacArthur Causeway, pediatrician Orlando Bosch fires bazooka at a Polish freighter. (City of Miami later declares "Orlando Bosch Day." Federal agents will jail him in 1988.)[Then later pardoned by George Bush senior.]

1976 Car bomb blows off legs of WQBA-AM news director Emilio Milian after he publicly condemns exile violence.

1983 Miami City Commissioner Demetrio Perez seeks to honor exile terrorist Juan Felipe de la Cruz, accidentally killed while assembling a bomb. (Perez is now a member of the Miami-Dade County Public School Board and owner of the Lincoln-Marti private school where Elian Gonzalez is enrolled.)

1993 Inflamed by Radio Mambi commentator Armando Perez-Roura, Cuban exiles physically assault demonstrators lawfully protesting against U.S. embargo. Two police officers injured, sixteen arrests made. Miami City Commissioner Miriam Alonso then seeks to silence anti-embargo demonstrators: "We have to look at the legalities of whether the City of Miami can prevent them from expressing themselves."

April 11, 2000 Outside home of Elian Gonzalez's Miami relatives, radio talk show host Scot Piasant of Portland, Oregon, displays T-shirt reading, "Send the boy home" and "A father's rights," then is physically assaulted by nearby exile crowd before police come to rescue.

And who could forget the mob that attacked the CNN tent in front of Elian's family's house?

I thought at the time this was as bad as it could get in South Florida, I had been through Andrew too, but then the 2000 election happened. That's when I decided after 30 years, I couldn't stomach the stupid people and the weather and the roaches and all the tourists anymore. It's been five years but it seems like yesterday and I couldn't be happier to be out of there. Thank God, I wasn't there for the Schiavo circus!

Famous last words, almost...

February 3, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraq's interim prime minister declared Wednesday that the success of the national elections had dealt a major blow to the insurgents -- who have not carried out a major attack since the balloting -- and he predicted they will be defeated within months. [Was he talking about the insurgency or the new "government?"]

"Within months" of that very prescient prediction.

April 21, 2005

"BAGHDAD (Reuters)- Iraq's caretaker prime minister Iyad Allawi escaped an assassination attempt on Wednesday night when a suicide bomber in a car attacked his convoy near his home, a government spokesman said."

Also White House spokeswoman Clare Buchan said:

"I think part of what you're seeing and what you've heard the President talk about is that the terrorists are seeing the progress that's being made, and that is making them more desperate."

No wait, that was from August 26, 2003. Oh well, just fill in the blank, they're desperate.

In another sign of desperation insugents shot down a Bulgarian helicopter killing 11 including 6 Americans.

We're not ever leaving are we?

(Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Wednesday agreed to spend $592 million for a new embassy in Iraq..."

[Way to get that budget deficit under control.]

I found this at Asia Times online, which kind of continues what I was talking about yesterday about us ever getting out of Iraq.

"The only way Iraq's transitional government can garner any measure of popular credibility is to demand a firm deadline for total American withdrawal. This is what the Shi'ite masses voted for. Yet this is the last thing on the minds of the White House/Pentagon/Green Zone axis that controls -or will control - the country.

Whenever there is a so-called "transfer of power" in Mesopotamia, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, like clockwork, steps on a plane to Baghdad. On his latest trip designed to issue orders for the new, supposedly sovereign Iraqi government, Rumsfeld, in a splendid Freudian slip, let it be known on the record the US "does not have an exit strategy" in Iraq: only a "victory strategy". This is code for "we're not going anywhere"

On democracynow.org yesterday Naomi Klein and Eric Gustafson, a Gulf War veteran and founder and director of the Education for Peace in Iraq Center debated the pros and cons of us pulling out.

Kline said:

"The resistance largely controls Baghdad at this point, a situation where there are between 50 and 60 attacks a day. The militias that Eric is warning about already control large sectors of Iraq, because providing security for the people of Iraq has never, from day one, been a priority of this occupation.

We saw the abandonment immediately by allowing the looting to take place and only guarding the Ministry of Oil, and it?s only gotten worse. You know, when I was in Iraq a year ago, this was the most persistent complaint -- was spiraling crime. And that's actually how the militias were created. They were created as a response to the fact that US Occupation never, ever prioritized giving security to Iraqis."

The militias are the key to this whole thing, I think. We've got big problem of our own making.

In the LA TIMES there is an article about the worsening situation in Basra, which was thought to be more or less stable. As I've noted on this blog before, the Brits are nowhere to be found. [Brit soldier to victim asking for help, ?You?re a sovereign country now. We can?t help. You have to go to the Iraqi authorities."]

"A series of recent daytime assassinations of Shiite and Sunni Muslim officials here has led to fears that Sunni insurgents, Shiite radicals and Iranian agents may be seeking to destabilize this southern city...

Tensions also have increased among Shiite groups as a result of a bloody raid staged by Shiite followers of radical cleric Muqtada Sadr on dozens of university students attending a coed picnic this month. The Sadr movement's Council for Vice and Virtue claimed responsibility for the attack, saying the students were beaten with clubs and shot at for ignoring religious prohibitions including mixing of the sexes. Several students were injured.
Essa blamed Iranians for some of the violence. Basra, which sits near the Iranian border, is a thoroughfare for many Iranian Shiites making pilgrimages to the Iraqi holy cities of Najaf and Karbala.

But Essa [Sheik Khalaf Essa, a Sunni cleric and leader of Basra's Iraqi Islamic Party] has also acknowledged that Sunnis involved in the nationwide insurgency as well as local Sunnis probably had committed some recent attacks.

This month they were selling DVDs of the picnic incident in the Basra market to justify the attack and shame the students.

The disc shows male and female students socializing on a parched field. The Sadr supporters added a mournful soundtrack to the video: songs recounting the death of Imam Ali, the son-in-law of the prophet Muhammad and the founder of Shiite Islam."

The main power broker in Iraq, the man who arranged the elections just the way he wanted it, the man the U.S. can't say "no" to, Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Husaini Sistani is likely to push for a wider role for Islam in the government. This stuff going on in Basra could be a preview of what's to come nationwide.

Update on hostage situation in Iraq.

The BBC:

"The bodies of more than 50 men, women and children have been recovered from the River Tigris in the town of Suwayra, south of Baghdad.

Many had been badly mutilated, Iraqi authorities said.

President Jalal Talabani said the bodies were those of people who had been taken hostage and then killed in the nearby town of Madain.

The Arabic TV channel al-Arabiya said its cameras had filmed the bodies lying on the river bank.

"We discovered bags with the slaughtered children inside them," local policeman Riyadh Sakhi told al-Arabiya.

"There were two girls. One was a student and the other was very young. We discovered bags with slaughtered and beheaded young people. We discovered a large number of unidentified bodies."

Police said they had then been buried in mass graves.

In a related massacre story today:

"The bodies of 19 Iraqis have been found at a football stadium in Haditha, north of the capital Baghdad. Eyewitness reports said they appeared to have been lined up against a wall and shot.

The dead were dressed in civilian clothes but are thought to have been members of the Iraqi National Guard."

This crap ain't' working. (Attention troops, expect indefinite deployments!)

Now, I know the Iraqi security forces are gearing up to take over for us and we're laying back and letting them take a bigger share of the fighting, but it doesn't seem to be working.

Talk of a reduction of forces by early next year might be a little premature.

According to globalsecurity.org :

The January elections "combined with regularly scheduled deployments and reinforcements boosted the US force in Iraq from 17 to 20 brigades and to an official and approximate figure of 153,000 troops. That number is expected to dwindle down to 135,000, as units get rotated out of Iraq, including units whose tour had been extended. [Yeah, right.]

This figure may, however, have been an undercount of actual in-country troop numbers, as Special Forces have been reported to generally be excluded from troop totals. As such, the total figure of US troops in Iraq may be higher than the official count of ~150,000 by multiple thousands."

There are 170,000 troops in Southasia right now as well.

There doen't seem to be any real end in sight. If we pull back into bases and let the Iraqis handle things we cut way down on casualties (three U.S. troops died today), but the potential for the Madain type crisis happening again, but much worse, grows ever more ominous. Someone is going to have to retaliate for this.

Maybe, what we need is to make a deal with one of the many militias in the area. The Badr Brigade? The Madhi Army? Eventually, that's what's going to happen and we'll declare victory and go home.

Government by warlord seems to be working just fine in Afghanistan, except for the poverty, the corruption and the poppies, that is.

Bad, bad, nominees and Cheers for kids!

Steve Clemons writes in washingtonnote.com:

"The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee delayed a vote on the nomination of John Bolton as U.N. ambassador after a Republican senator said he was not prepared to vote for him on Tuesday and cast the nomination in doubt.

"I've heard enough today that I don't feel comfortable about voting for Mr. Bolton," Ohio Sen. George Voinovich said, stunning fellow Republicans who were set to push the contentious nomination through the committee on a party-line vote.

I'm still stunned that the Senate is managing to find the right way on this outrageous nomination.
Maybe this can be the beginning of a number of good things."

Probably not.

See a "A comprehensive look at John Bolton's career [Which] reveals a man who champions extremism in the service of expediency," by Tom Barry at
Smirking Chimp and an interview with Steve Clemons at democracynow.org.

Der Spiegel wrote of Bush's nominees on April 8th and the difficulty of avoiding all of them. John Bolton would be their choice to exert the most political pressure to defeat. But, they're all equally horrible. One in particular is Stephen L. Johnson for the EPA:

"Senators Barbara Boxer of California and Ben Nelson of Florida are threatening to stall Mr. Johnson's confirmation unless he promises to end a suspended Florida study in which families would be paid to allow researchers to study the effects of pesticides on their children - a macabre investigation co-sponsored by the American Chemistry Council.

The idea that the E.P.A. would pay families to continue exposing their children to potentially dangerous chemicals is on its face outrageous - and made worse by the study's ghoulish acronym, Cheers, for Children's Environmental Exposure Research Study."

Luckily, some cooler heads are prevailing in the senate:

CNN/April 14

"Frustrated by the Bush administration's air pollution policies, Democratic Sen. Thomas Carper plans to block the Senate from confirming President Bush's nominee to become administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

The Delaware senator is "going to place a hold on the nomination of Stephen Johnson to be head of the EPA," Carper's spokesman, Bill Ghent, said Thursday. All senators have the power to hold up the confirmation of a nominee.

Last week, Johnson's decision to meet Democrats' demands and cancel plans for a controversial study using children in Duval County, Florida, to measure the effect of pesticides cleared the way for the committee vote on his nomination."

Sign me up for bug spray cocktails!

The EPA web site explains about the program. Any kids you know who might want to sign up? hey mom, you might ask:

"Why are you looking for participants?

We need participants for a very important study called the Children’s Environmental Exposure Research Study (CHEERS) in Duval County, FL (Jacksonville, Florida area).

This two-year children’s exposure study will start in the Summer of 2004 and be conducted in Duval County (Jacksonville, Florida area). [Mainly African-American.]

The purpose of the study is to learn about levels of pesticides and common household chemicals in homes of young children.

Your participation will contribute to the knowledge of Children’s exposures, which will benefit young children in the future."

Oh you bet. The ones who survive.

Update on Iraqi "Beslan."
It might have been a hoax.

The Iraq Model says:

"General Hikmat Mousa from the ministry of interior, discredited the news about more than a hundred people taken hostages in Mada'en and he stressed that news agencies had exaggerated the situation.

The general told "New Sabah" that three battalions from the special forces of the ministry of interior are positioned around the town and on the roads leading to it from al friyah, Khalsah and Al-Wahda suburbs.

He added that these forces are waiting for engineering and other support units to begin cleaning the town from weapons, IEDs and unexploded ammunitions. The operations will extend later to include the rest of the suburbs in the region south-east of Baghdad."

See "this fucking war" which has been keeping a close eye on this as well. [See link to the left.]

China or Alabama in the 50's?

The Guardian strikes again!


When Condi went to China she didn't get far with the leadership on the whole be nice to Japan issue which was obvious but,

"what has not been reported in the western media is the reception Rice was given...

One way of taking the temperature in China is the Internet, a very important indicator of public opinion in a country where more traditional media are tightly controlled. The importance of - and recent upsurge in - nationalism, for example, has found powerful expression on Chinese websites. The Internet response to Rice's visit has been revealing...

...Liu Xiaobo, a veteran critic of mass movements in China since Tiananmen...

He says that of 800 messages he has read about her visit, no less than 70 involved racist comments about her color: of these, only two were relatively moderate; the rest were vicious, describing Rice as a "black ghost", "black dog", "black woman" and "black bitch". One stated, "You are not even like a black ghost, a really low form of life," and another, "Her brain is even more black than her skin." One writer said: "I don't support racism, but this black ghost really makes people angry, the appearance of a little black who has made good."

In fact, the reaction is not that surprising. Although it is rarely written about or commented upon, Chinese culture remains deeply racist. For the most part, the Chinese are in denial of their own racism, while white commentators, in their great majority, are either oblivious of it, or simply regard it as unimportant."

If anyone reads book any more, Barbara Tuchman's "Stilwell and the American experience in China" is an excellent book.

She reveals just what a piece of dirt Chiang Kai Chek was. After Wendel Willkie left, after his visit, Chiang said the windows should be opened to the get the smell of the white man out.

The middle kingdom syndrome went as far as to be a hindrance to allied strategy. At the Casablanca meetings, the first time Roosevelt and Churchill met Chiang, the idea of attacking the Japanese before the monsoon, was met with a blank stare from the Chinese side. Chiang had never heard of a monsoon because they didn't have them in China!

There is much more. A very interesting subject and important as China's influence and military grows. Also, it is important to know the history of our relationship with China over the years to get a better idea of why we'll be fighting in the Taiwan Strait at some point.

See also a good description of the China/America relationship.