CHINA ATTACKS AND THE WORLD CHANGES - FOREVER

My buddy Ioannes, over at Commentarius de Prognosticis, posted some comments about the Biblical aspects of the recent attacks in South Korea. This put me in mind of some things I've been ruminating over the last few days.

China fires a missile off our west coast (I think this IS the best answer for the sighting of a week or so ago), partners with Russia to forgo the dollar as the world's reserve currency, setting the dollar on course for its final demise, and then has its proxy, North Korea, fire on South Korea, knowing full well our commitment to defend the South and our troop strength at the 38th parallel. The Obama administration has sent a carrier task force into the Yellow Sea in support of the South to participate in military exercises with the South in a purposefully, yet ill conceived, act of aggressive behavior aimed at the North, a state headed by a mad man and controlled by China.

Would you say China has us right where they want us?

What's the next step? Allow war to breakout in Korea and America to become involved? The only way we can prosecute it is to go nuclear immediately because we don't have the financial or industrial resources to prosecute a third world war. But if we go nuclear the war will escalate regardless so what difference will it make?

If we go to war China will destroy us economically, though this seems to be their intent regardless. Of course, they could potentially destroy their own economy too, but my guess is they figure we won't take the chance and if we do, so what? They can withstand financial calamity over the short term because they can continue to produce the worlds goods, in the factories we sent to them. Their people, by and large can't do a thing about it because they'll be shot so they'll meekly continue to slave for the state.

Here in America, on the other hand, society will collapse.

We no longer produce much of anything. Our people are mostly urban with no real ability to survive without a massive energy supply in the form of oil. And when the dollar is no longer the reserve currency and the oil producers want payment in rubles, yuan or gold we will have to get by on what we can produce right here, which ain't all that much.

So if we go to war we'll finance it as long as we can with money created out of thin air by the fed. But with the dollar losing its reserve status that ought to last about a day.

So here, in my humble opinion is what's going on in Korea. We are being put in our place by the worlds largest economic and military power, China. We have ceded our place as the leader of the world and we are about to have our hat handed to us by our new masters.

I could be wrong but I suspect those rounds fired across the border the other day heralded the birthday of the new world order.

So, if I were king what would I do? I'd keep that task force headed towards the Yellow Sea. I would announce to China and Korea that it is arriving to support the complete withdrawal of all American forces from the Korean peninsula. At the same time I would inform them that we will not tolerate any interference and if they want total war they can have it. Or they can let us leave in peace.

I would begin to withdraw all troops from all parts of the world that are not American soil. Sorry guys, you're on your own. America can no longer afford the luxury of empire. I would bring the troops back, keep enough to defend our borders and our country and I would send the rest home. The resources we save from this will be more than adequate to offer at least some minimal level of support to the American people as our economy grinds to a halt and collapses.

Because, just like Europe and the rest of the world we are going to collapse. Better to do it on our own terms than someone else's. People will still starve and die of violent acts during this reset of our entire way of life, but perhaps fewer will suffer if we can control, at least partially, the process of the collapse itself. A controlled burn is better than a wildfire.

We need to join with our friends and allies in our hemisphere to create a new economic system focused on internal trade first, with global trading way down the list. We need to build what we consume right here. BUILD. We have to come to grips with the truth that a service based economy creates nothing of value and thus has no value. We need to become a nation of builders once again. Factories, smelters, mines and farms. Nuke plants for electricity. Rebuild the rail system and learn to rely less on the cars and trucks. Localize our lives. Buy our food from the local farmers and the goods we need from local producers. That way we have what we need to live and the jobs to pay for it.

And toughen up because this new way of life will require a lot from each and every one of us. Cell phones? We'll be lucky to have land lines. Electricity? Maybe for a few here and there that can generate their own or live near a still barely functioning electrical producer. Remember, all those lines and towers, dams and power plants that make up the power grid need to be serviced and that requires oil. Not to mention that the insulation for the wires themselves are made of oil. The little oil we produce ourselves will have to be dedicated to supporting the building of our future power systems, not propping up the old. And it will also be needed for defense.

The common people, which will be most of us, will be living about the same way as our great-great grandfathers did back in the 1880's. Steam engines will make a come back along with kerosene lanterns. Wood stoves for heat in the winter and sweat all summer long. Diseases we thought were gone will return along with a much higher mortality rate. We'll grow most of the food we consume and buy what we can't grow from those that can. Chickens and goats will take the place of BMW's and big screens.

All of this is what those rounds fired across the Korean border have opened the door to. If not them it'll be something else just as insignificant to the average person.

Our lives teeter on the edge of massive and abrupt change. A small spark will light the fire of disintegration and all that we consider permanent will turn to ash and be blown away, gone with the wind.