Chinese weapons killing US troops

What a difference a war makes.

Before 9/11, the Bush Administration treated China – correctly – as a "strategic competitor," a nation whose goals and ambitions are in many ways inimical to our own. 

After 9/11, and especially since the beginning of the Iraq War, Bush and his team have acted under the pretense that China is a "partner" in the war on terror.

Unfortunately, both for the Administration’s credibility and for the security of Americans, reality indicates that China is nothing of the sort.

Today, in his weekly "Inside the Ring" column in the Washington Times, journalist Bill Gertz writes about how China is literally getting away with murder.

Gertz reports the Beijing is arming terrorists and insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan, and is doing so by both Iranian proxy and by direct shipment of arms from factories in China.   Among the items sent to America’s enemies are "large-caliber sniper rifles, millions of rounds of ammunition, rocket-propelled grenades and components for roadside bombs, as well as other small arms."

In addition, the Chinese have supplied HN-5 anti-aircraft missiles to the Taliban.   They were also the original provider of the C-802 anti-ship missile used by Hezbollah to cripple an Israeli frigate during that country’s war with Hezbollah last summer.

The Washington Times article reveals that the Iranians have asked the Chinese to remove the serial numbers from the weapons delivered, so as to make them less traceable.  The Chinese reportedly then offered to ship the weapons directly, with the full knowledge that they would not be interdicted by the U.S.

Incredibly, according to Gertz, the Bush Administration " has been trying to hide or downplay the intelligence reports to protect its pro-business policies toward China, and to continue to claim that China is helping the United States in the war on terrorism."

"U.S. officials have openly criticized Iran for the arms transfers but so far there has been no mention that China is a main supplier."

That Chinese weapons, delivered "with the full knowledge and understanding of Beijing where these weapons are going," could be used against U.S. soldiers with nary a word from our leaders is unconscionable.

The Bush Administration owes to our fighting men and women, and to the American people, to overcome its disingenuous silence and call China out for what it is really doing beneath its peaceful rhetoric.

One thing is for certain.  China’s duplicitous posturing as a partner to the U.S. is, in the words of one official, "utter nonsense."