I am constantly appalled by the irresponsible--at times, even treasonous--unconcern for the security and future credibility of the United States that is routinely exhibited by the Washington politicians of both the Democratic and Republican parties in dealing with the nation's foreign affairs. A case in point is the Bush administration's alternately bullying and abjectly-cowardly reactions to North Korea's nuclear-weapons program. Doesn't President Bush have any advisers who can think at least one step ahead on the political chessboard?

It has to be obvious to everyone with an IQ over 65 that Communist China has been the dedicated enemy of the US ever since 1947, and has been at war with the US ever since October 1950, at which time she launched an unannounced attack aimed at destroying the US forces fighting in Korea--even though the US then possessed nuclear weapons and Communist China did not. Since then, matters have not been improved greatly by the continuing kneejerk-reflex meddling of the US In internal China-Taiwan affairs, even though psychopathic-dictator Chiang Kai-shek (the subject of FDR's Great Asian Illusion, and our sole reason for supporting the Kuomintang forces run out of China and exiled to Taiwan) has long been dead and buried. In addition, the US has thwarted the desires of China and our other enemy Russia to conclude oil deals in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East.

In response, China has been preparing for war with the US. According to the extensive reportage of Bill Gertz of the Washington Times, she has been maintaining an effective espionage-network in the US, which recent administrations could not be bothered to suppress. She has been learning how to hack into our computer networks to sabotage them in time of war, and how to fry our satellites; and she has been using her huge trade-surpluses from her trade with the US to buy advanced weapons-systems from Russia, Israel, etc.

Communist China has been making good Kruschev's old threat: "Communism will dance on the grave of the capitalist and we will sell you the rope you use to hang yourself." The Chinese dictatorship has been permitting the US supercapitalists (who own and operate the federal government) to ship the US manufacturing to China, so the supercapitalists can get richer quicker, while turning the US into a debtor nation and destroying its middle class. In recompense, President Clinton hired Samuel Berger--who had been the chief US lobbyist for China, as his national-security advisor; the Chinese government contributed to Clinton's reelection campaign; and Clinton moved heaven and earth (successfully) to get China admitted to the WTO. Similarly, President Bush has permitted Chinese military observers to witness US Navy war games (which would be used against China), and has made Chinese officers privy to sensitive high-level US military planning. Those US supercapitalists get whatever they want, and to hell with the security of the United States.

As a part of her buildup, China has been enlisting allies from around the world to make life difficult for the US--activities which the US government ignores. The most-obvious of those allies is North Korea; it doesn't take a rocket scientist to perceive that Kim Jong-il would not now possess nuclear weapons and be issuing his threats against the US without the blessings of China.

Early on, President Bush shot from the lip by gratuitously threatening both Iran and North Korea. But apparently he fell so deeply in love with his Zionist neocon-advisers' plans to complete his daddy's unfinished business in Iraq (even though he had not yet achieved his stated objective in Afghanistan), that evidently he failed to perceive that by tying up the remainder of his forces in Iraq, he would be patently unable to carry out his threats against Iran or North Korea.

Neither the Iranians nor the North Koreans are stupid. Both nations realized that Bush was overextended in Iraq; and both countries called Bush's bluff. Kim Jong-il announced forthcoming tests of nuclear weapons. Bush's response was to waffle. He elected to ask the UN to back him up--knowing full well that the UN had demonstrated itself to be fully as effective as the League of Nations was in the late 1930s; and in addition, that China and Russia would swiftly shoot down any real efforts on his part to coerce North Korea into dropping its nuclear-weapons program.

And sure enough.... Now we learn (in the small print) that China and Russia, who loudly denounced North Korea's nuclear test in principle, have refused to agree to mandatory UN sanctions backed up by military action if they don't work. The US government has agreed to this foreordained gutting of its response to North Korea. China, Russia, and North Korea win, and the US loses--badly; but maybe the Bush administration can persuade the American people that it won the confrontation and is doing a wonderful job of protecting the interests of the US.

Power is a muscle: if you do not exercise it in crises, you lose it. Perhaps someone can explain to me how the US--given the outstandingly-cowardly performance of its recent administrations (Republican and Democrat) in carrying out its foreign policy, the US hopes to convince any other nation that it is still a superpower. And if the Democrats win control in November, their response to future conflicts of this type will be to turn such conflicts over to the UN immediately--that governing body which has demonstrated repeatedly that it loves the US almost as much as it loves Israel.

Frank Conner is the author of "The South Under Siege 1830 - 2000/A History of the Relations Between the North and the South." You may contact him at frankconner@mail.newnanutilities.org, or learn about his book at Amazon