WASHINGTON – Even as China nibbles closer and closer
to its main prey, Taiwan, by seizing nearby disputed
islands for missile bases, reliable sources say the
White House is pressuring Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld to pick a Taiwan-basher as the next chairman
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The current chair is Gen. Hugh Shelton, who’s leaving
in October, which is not soon enough for China hawks
in the Pentagon and on the Hill.
Don’t let his lantern jaw and jar head fool you.
Shelton proved more a political yes-man than a
soldier’s soldier. He rolled over for the
Pentagon-gutting, Red China-loving Clintonistas like a
smarmy golden retriever.
But if my Senate sources are right, his replacement
may be worse. They’re bracing themselves for the
appointment of Navy Adm. Dennis Blair. The
commander in chief of U.S. Pacific forces favors
military-to-military exchanges with Beijing and is no
fan of Taiwan.
Should he be confirmed this summer, Beijing would find
great comfort in knowing that the senior military
adviser to the American commander in chief and defense
secretary likens our ally Taiwan to a “turd” that’s
not worth defending.
That’s right. In a Senate meeting in 1999, Blair told
staffers that “Taiwan is the turd in the punch bowl of
U.S.-China relations.” Then he said if Taiwan were to
declare itself an independent nation, “I don’t think
we should support them at all.”
Word is that Blair has the endorsement of Condi Rice,
Bush’s security adviser, who also has a soft spot for
Communist China. As Stanford University provost, she
was chummy with former Clinton Defense Secretary
William Perry, another China cheerleader and a veteran
of the pro-China corporate lobby.
(Palo Alto, Calif.’s Stanford, you’ll recall, produced
for Perry’s Pentagon the bogus 1995 study
rationalizing the mass export of U.S. supercomputers
to China under the treasonous Clinton regime. Beijing
has employed them in its nuke missile program, no
doubt increasing the accuracy, reliability and
deadliness of its ICBMs now locked on more than a
dozen U.S. cities.)
But apparently as a smokescreen, the White House has
leaked to the press that Rumsfeld has been
interviewing retired Navy Adm. Joseph Prueher for the
Joint Chiefs job. Prueher, a notorious
panda-hugger,
makes Blair look hawkish by comparison – and
therefore more confirmable, which is the point of the
White House’s strategy, my sources say.
Rumsfeld is a cold-eyed realist when it comes to
China, and a refreshing change from appeasers Perry
and Bill Cohen, I’m told by career Pentagon officials.
But he’s already allowed himself to be buffaloed once
by the pro-China Bushies.
He wanted to take a hard-line against Beijing over the
EP-3 hijacking, but was overruled by Rice and the old
China hands in Bush’s kitchen cabinet.
Rumsfeld was right. The softer White House strategy
proved humiliating, and only strengthened Beijing’s
bellicose hand. Its military grows more threatening to
Taiwan – and U.S. carriers that would come to its
rescue – by the day.
Rumsfeld makes the final Joint Chiefs recommendation
to Bush. Picking Blair may please the White House, but
it also means picking someone who essentially aligns
himself with the communist regime in China against
democratic Taiwan.
Rumsfeld must part ways with the pro-China lobbyists
in the White House on this one, and let the public
know about his opposition. It’s too important. Taiwan
can’t afford the U.S. appeasing the mainland
communists any more than we already have.
