Brent Colton is a retired CIA operations officer now in the employ of the Creighton Corporation, a privately owned think tank that advocates various opinions on world issues, but it’s his clandestine job to solve the dirty problems for their private clients for a million dollar fee with no questions asked. When recovering stolen technology from a Vietnamese industrialist, Colton obtains evidence that he secretly partnered with a U.S. Senatorto rig the recent presidential election and elect him to the nation’s highest office.

IS AMERICA’S SOVEREIGNTY ALSO FOR SALE?
by Terry Heath, 2005

Dwight Eisenhower took the oath of office as this nation’s 34th President on January 20, 1953 and one of the problems that he inherited from his predecessor, Harry Truman, was the ongoing war in Korea which was in a current stalemate at that time after two and a half years of war between the United States’ led United Nations Forces against the North Korean and Red Chinese Armies that had attempted a conquest of South Korea. Eisenhower met with his political advisors and senior military officials on how best to end the conflict that was seeming to be in an endless draw and the new chief executive was seriously considering the introduction of tactical nuclear weapons in the battle zones to end the stalemate. But two things occurred that spring that brought a quick resolution to that undeclared war. Soviet Union President Joseph Stalin died in March and Chinese Chairman Mao Zedong was surreptitiously apprised of Eisenhower’s potential introduction of nuclear weapons against his armies in Korea and possibly into Chinese controlled Manchuria so realized a truce was the best way out as he had to realize that he had to back down to America’s military superiority.

We shift our focus to the fall of 1954 when Chiang Kai-shek’s nationalist forces that were re-arming themselves on Taiwan after they were forced to flee the mainland in 1949 sent seventy thousand troops to the islands of Quemoy and Matsu that were located just two miles off the coastline of mainland China. Chairman Mao and his Communist government denounced the move and began a daily bombing the islands with artillery shells with veiled threats of invading the renegade island province.

The U.S. Joint Chiefs weighed in on the situation and recommended that if China made a move against Taiwan, then America should intervene on behalf of the Taiwanese people and drop atomic weapons on all of the major cities of China as retaliation. Eisenhower consulted with his allies in Europe and Asia but could not get a consensus among them that they would support any U.S. nuclear attack on China if the Chinese did launch a war against Taiwan. The crisis continued on into the spring of 1955 and the American public came to the realization that some type of nuclear war could break out if a resolution could not be worked out, even if their leaders go against world opinion and commit to a nuclear strategy on their own while they remained the strongest country in the world.

Eventually the Chinese gave up and quit shelling the two islands when it became obvious to them that the United States had resolve over this matter and would not back down. But President Eisenhower had to realize that the American public was not yet ready to risk world annihilation over two insignificant islands half-way around the world when their own vested interests were not involved. He learned the valuable lesson that if you have to negotiate with the Chinese then you must assert yourself through dominance and by strength of resolve and having the muscle to back such dominance or you would eventually lose when in competition with them.

So what does this history lesson from the past have to do with events of today? We are crossing a threshold with China as they flex their economic might and are ready to pass us as the greatest economic superpower in the world. And what are we doing about it? We’re helping them all along the way as we sell out our sovereignty for the quick buck of the moment as the multi-national companies that power the economic might in this country are more interested in filling up their personal bank accounts than supporting and encouraging the well being and continued existence of the American worker.

Richard Nixon went to China in February, 1972 to begin the normalization of relations with the Communist Beijing government, then Jimmy Carter established diplomatic relations with the Asian behemoth in 1979, leading to the beginning of economic trade for that country as they began sending their goods to willing American consumers anxious to purchase products at a cheaper price. Yet, for many years economic experts have been warning about this increasing trade imbalance that we have with this Asian giant, much to no avail as China has become the second greatest economy in the world with obvious intent on passing us and becoming number one.

China’s economy is ever increasing as they are building more factories and hiring more workers to make the products that the naïve American consumer demands and they are now the second largest importer of oil to power these factories, behind the United States. That is why the price of a gallon of gas for the American driver is not dropping but instead keeps rising even though oil production in the world is at an all-time high. Demand for oil has dramatically increased as the countries of Asia are coming out of a multi-year recession and supplies remain tight as requests for sending import goods to America by China and these other countries for hard American currency are at a peak and will grow even more as we sign more and more economic treaties that reduce the tariffs on these imported goods. This is the best scenario possible for the multi-national oil companies that controls the supply and production of oil around the planet and whose only loyalty is to the almighty dollar and to those willing to pay the best price for the product offered.

China is on a buying splurge for new energy sources over these last few years, thanks to the surplus of cash that all of us American consumers have willingly contributed to them through our purchase of their cheap imports. Now the Chinese government controlled China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC) has made an independent offer of 18.5 billion dollars to buy the publicly traded Unocal Oil Company for themselves. Unocal had previously agreed to be purchased earlier in this year by the Chevron Oil Company for 17.5 billion in a merger of the two giant oil companies so they could pool resources. It will be interesting to see if the stockholders of Unocal accept the better Chinese government’s offer to be bought out by them over the vested interests of their own brethren oil company and countrymen.

Now we have to ask ourselves this question. Does American sovereignty mean anything anymore? Are the multi-national corporations that so many of us work for more interested in the short-term profits for their shareholders and executives than the betterment of the citizens of this country in retaining control of companies in industries that are necessary for this country’s survival?

Recent issues of Time Magazine and U.S. News and World Report have done cover stories about how the mighty Chinese economy is poised to pass our country’s declining economic output over the next few years and how we have to accept the inevitable. So how are the Chinese going to do such an act? By first getting the cheap oil to fuel their increasing number of factories building the cheap products that the naïve American consumer craves and demands and do it in a way to the detriment of anyone else needing the same materials. We must face the possibility that the Chinese are willing to ensure their dominance in the 21st Century because they are making sure they have resources to keep their economy going. They are making separate deals with OPEC, countries in southeast Asia and those in South America for oil and are doing it as the big bully to the suffering of all the others on the playing field. It only makes sense on their part that they will try to buy American oil companies willing to sell themselves out to the highest bidder for China’s benefit. But at what ultimate price will the American worker pay for such sellouts by these multi-national corporations who apparently don’t have any use for the American worker anymore?

The ‘Wal-Martization’ of the United States economy has started as cheap products made by an inexpensive labor force outside the United States brings down the wages of U.S. workers who used to make such items. The continued outsourcing of jobs and the bringing in of cheap import goods will ultimately hurt the United States worker despite the pronouncements of the multi-national companies that all is well. We will doom ourselves through this self-fulfilling prophecy of demanding cheaper products for our own petty usage even if this is to the detriment of our neighbors who will lose their jobs over such short-sightedness.

Will the Bush administration’s State Department cancel this hostile takeover on grounds of national security? Or do they support the vested interests of their multi-national corporation friends who make the campaign contributions for their political patronage? It will be interesting to find out over these next few weeks as you can expect that Congress will weigh in on this issue.

What was the old Communist saying from a hundred years ago? ‘The west will sell us the rope that we will hang them with.’ It’s obvious that the United States and China will be engaging in a trade war over the next few years for the economic dominance in the world. But would it lead to a military conflict between the two nations? It possibly could, if we are forced to secure the same sources of oil that China will need for their own self-serving needs. Unfortunately, for us at this present time, it appears that China is the current dominant force in the world.

Terry Heath California E-Mail readermail@terryheathbooks.com