Easy to answer the main thrust of this article. China has to get off of it's landmass to do much of anything right now. Could it invade say.. Siberia? possibly but the economic fallout from this makes it unliekly in the extreme. Will it cross the straights? Not a chance. A marine operation of the size necessary is impossible with China's dismal naval capacity and would be much liek shooting ducks in a pond. The "human wave" approach is no longer effective against today's weaponry and dramatically improved ammo supply. We wil let China rot until it's old guard die off and are slowly replaced with progressives. Done and done. Anyone who thinks that either Iraq or China's conventional force has even a tiny chance of succeeding against the US in open combat knows little to nothing about modern warfare.
The WMD threat? The difference is right here. China not only has *confirmed* WMD but they have so bloody many of the damn things that a preemptive strike is unfeasable. Take off the blinders folks. Deal in the real.
The difference is the consequence of the action phoenix. The consequences of trying to force China out of Tibet would be radically different than the consequences were for forcing Iraq out of Kuwait. The two military situations are so different that it is pointless to try and draw paralells. China could in no way stand up to us in conventional force but it *could* wreak mass havoc on civilian populaces with it's well developed WMD program. Preventing another country from obtaining this form of detent is *exactly* why we went into Iraq.
While the Ideals behind the potential ouster of each invader nation would be similar that simple real world facts make doing one feasable and the other not. I do not deal in the ideal very often. My job is the Real.
edit : Apologies for the ridiculous multipost. I have seen it happen a few times but thats the first one for me.