Dateline: Manhattan, not too far from Times Square, 26 June 2005

Geertz is a little Charles Foster Kane all by himself: "Get me some pictures! I'll supply the war!"

Chinese dragon awakens

By Bill Gertz

THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Published June 26, 2005

China is building its military forces faster than U.S. intelligence and military analysts expected, prompting fears that Beijing will attack Taiwan in the next two years, according to Pentagon officials.

U.S. defense and intelligence officials say all the signs point in one troubling direction: Beijing then will be forced to go to war with the United States, which has vowed to defend Taiwan against a Chinese attack.

China's military buildup includes an array of new high-technology weapons, such as warships, submarines, missiles and a maneuverable warhead designed to defeat U.S. missile defenses. Recent intelligence reports also show that China has stepped up military exercises involving amphibious assaults, viewed as another sign that it is preparing for an attack on Taiwan. . .

The combination of a vibrant centralized economy, growing military and increasingly fervent nationalism has transformed China into what many defense officials view as a fascist state.

"We may be seeing in China the first true fascist society on the model of Nazi Germany, where you have this incredible resource base in a commercial economy with strong nationalism, which the military was able to reach into and ramp up incredible production," a senior defense official said.

I had a China handler in the Office of Secretary of Defense's public afffairs office email me last week that I shouldn't believe any of the war talk about China supposedly emanating from the Pentagon, as portrayed in the press.

Check out the whole piece: (http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.php?StoryID=20050626-122138-1088r.

No, no, nothing to worry about when senior Pentagon people start comparing your state to Nazi Germany. So many similarities, where to begin?

The crazy talk will only get worse as the money gets put on the table in the Quadrennial Defense Review: $1.4 trillion spread over several dozen programs.

Do you think the defense-industrial complex is going to take it lying down? Just giving it all up to the Army and Marines to fight puny wars the Gap over?

No way, Jose. Lotsa money on the line. Need a big demon real bad. Just keep calling them fascist as if the word has meaning in the free-wheeling and incredibly rapacious capitalism that is China.

Geertz has to be the dumbest guy writing on the Pentagon today. He should go back to the National Inquirer or wherever he learned his "craft."