WORLD AFFAIRS: Forced Off The Fence, By Mary Hennock, NEWSWEEK, Aug 23, 2008

It's dangerous to make any assumptions on China. I remember the long-range "wargame" we played based on PNM: every chance we gave China to choose sides, they simply deferred. It yielded a great strategy that concentrated on grabbing low-hanging fruit and avoiding any costly responsibility.

There is a long list of subjects and places and venues where Russia's resistance to all positions American will effectively kill our ability to lead internationally. For Beijing, that's not necessarily a bad thing--certainly not bad enough to challenge openly.

But that's the problem with the instant gratification approach on Moscow: all it will reveal is how hard it would be to toss Russia out of the club.

Ah, but this is the danger of seeing war-within-the-context-of-everything-else: you're considered a wimp if you don't advocate the military solutions, aggressively pursued.

(Thanks: Andrew Stewart)