(OT:) China warns US, "Don't shoot down satellite"

No, actually, that sounds like it might be spot-on.

Just wondering if there is another motive besides that.

Good call, though.

It's exactly the reason why some smart person in Washington got Bush to shut his stupid cake hole about N. Korea, and let the Chinese handle their own neighborhood. The results were probably less imperfect than if we'd kept badgering NK. We have a long history of being completely disinterested in and oblivious to what makes some countries tick.

Well, indeed, "face" and the losing of same is a very important concept in the East.

There you go again...defending the perps, e.g. the evil tyrants of NK. The is NOTHING, repeat NOTHING defensible about NK and its brutish leaders.

China will DEAL with NK with WHATEVER force it takes to solve any problems. The Chinese govt., being totalitarian in nature, doesn't worry about limp-wristed simps, like the LIEbrawls in this newsgroup, who worry about minor collateral damage. I can just imagine the hue and outcry from the LIEbrawls here if the U.S. actually DID intervene directly in NK. They would be falling all over themselves cursing their OWN govt. while falling into bed with the despots in NK. Just like how the LIEbrawls in the West weaken their OWN governments by attacking them while, effectively, aiding and abetting, the barbarians, insurgents, Taliban, etc in the Middle east.

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OTOH when dealing with a harmless 2-bit dictator, like Saddam Hussein, you see a problem, support war against his country and end up turning Iran and Pakistan into big problems.

Spoken like a true asshole who thinks like a 2-bit dictator.

Nerd! Nerd! Nerd! Nerd! Nerd!

It's also not a great achievement when the trajectory has been known for days in advance and there's only a single target.

Here's China's mindset:

China is the most important, most sophisticated nation on Earth, and the rest of the world is barbaric in comparison.

They've believed that for many centuries.

And why did you assume, even for a nanosecond, that foreign policy wasn't and won't always be full of hypocrisy?

Strong enough to get bin Laden? No, no, no -- don't say it's Bill Clinton'fault because because GW Bush has been in charge for the past seven years.

That's what Napoleon thought of his country, and look what happened. OTOH George Washington never thought that way.

Why does the US have an anti-missile system so primitive that its control has to be reconfigured to hit a satellite rather than another missile? That would seem to make it rather ineffective against an attack consisting of both ballistic and FOBS missiles. FOBS has been the mainstay of Russia's ICBM force for a decade, and there's no reason North Korea and Iran wouldn't also favor FOBS because GPS makes it easy to implement, and FOBS was invented for evading missile defenses.

A much more effective anti-satellite system, one that doesn't require knowing way ahead of time where the satellite will be or waiting for the satellite to come into the crosshairs rather than chasing after the satellite. IOW the Chinese would like something a lot more like the aircraft-launched system that the US had back in the 1980s.

Unfortunately you're quite correct. I have an acquaintance who actually designs optical satellites for civilian and military use. The man is brilliant and knows what he's talking about.

Two days ago, we conversed about the shoot-down. He said it was all everyone wanted to talk about when seeing him (due to his expertise).

What he told me was surprising. "Every major country of the world with current missile technology can do this. It's not a big deal. It's a known orbit, so calculating the proper trajectory isn't too difficult."

IOW, it ain't shootin' down an incoming missile. Just a learning experience.

The satellite that China destroyed was orbiting about 500 miles high, meaning it wasn't over a fixed point of Earth, unlike a geostationary satellite orbiting almost 23,000 high would be.

I said no such thing.

Then China is the country for you. No wonder you're always criticizing the free (liberal) countries.

China wants to be seen as a dignified, benevolent leader of the world and therefore will not deal as harshly with foreign countries as it does with its own dissidents, at least not while it's attempting to acquire wealth, allies, and power, which is what China's "50 years of peace and diplomacy" campaign is about.

Still asking questions I see. I'm sure if you did a search you could learn more about our capabilities, but I suspect most of what you want to know would be classified. LOL

And yet, a minute later, you posted an incoherent rant on the same subject. I'll start watching for this pattern vs time of day and provide you with data you can present to your doctor. Your meds need adjusting.