Tossing and turning in the night, I contemplated two things among the many horrors inflicted by Russia on our free world. First, they used Iskander missiles with a range of 500 miles. Yesterday, they fired a hypersonic missile from a plane in Russian air space and hit an ammo depot in Ukraine. There is no effective defense against the hypersonic missile, and shooting down a jet over Russia would initiate WWIII. Our hands are tied at the moment.
Many other nations are developing hypersonic missiles, and the U.S. will deploy our first this month. We're behind China and Russia in this technology, and building a defense system is at least a year away.
Currently, Russia has the world over the proverbial barrel, with tacit support from China. If the free world permits Russia to overwhelm Ukraine, there is the scenario for Russia continuing the assault on former USSR states. Nuclear war is always in breach.
The Russians will feel the pain, and with China supporting them, they will become like a Chinese province, wholly dependent.
Would China be content to face a shrinking economy and degraded quality of life due to themselves incurring sanctions? Would China find it desirable to be anchored by Russia and the Republic of North Korea, rogue nations much different than their own?
Now is the time to speak with China, not about the negatives but how to forge a positive and productive future through mutual respect. Cowboy diplomacy will not work.
I proposed the discussion should be about optimizing sustainable economies for humanity's sake. Those, like Russia, who are willing to risk Armageddon and the end of life as we know it is incongruent with China which manages a massive population while sustaining a healthy economy.
From China's perspective, their model of communism is more successful than Russia's. The U.S. capitalist model has its positives, though unsustainable, as I wrote in Regenerating America with Sustainable Economics.
The way ahead is for China and the U.S. to concentrate on leading the way to global economic sustainability. It must be give-and-take. The starting points include:
- Embracing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
- Being respectful of alternative economic models
- Adopting the rule of law
- Rejecting authoritarianism
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