AMU Homeland Security

To Feed a Caged Dragon

Brett Daniel Shehadey
Special Contributor for In Homeland Security

At present, the world is commercially linked to China and China to the world. In the Pacific, the US and allies have increased a military signature, eventually to station 60 percent of the US Navy alone. America is selling weapons to all regional allies in response to Chinese maritime expansion. In some respects, the strategy has been extremely effective. It has had the short term unintended consequences of pushing or holding China. Players like Japan have solidified territorial holdings. All of them are arming up and many of them are protecting zones that are in dispute.

The great strategic flaw and contradiction of economic cooperation and geopolitical balancing is seen in a short parable below:

The chieftain of a mighty village captures a dragon and locks it into a cage for the protection of the people and for the wondrous magical rewards that the dragon can deliver. The dragon offers all sorts of lavished gifts that it creates with its magic. In return, the great chief feeds the dragon. No one believes the dragon will ever escape and they rarely think of its tail hanging out of the of the cage where the sun sets.

The warriors add a new rope man to the cage, who, with his brothers in arms, use brute force to keep the dragon from breaking free and flying out. As the dragon grows, they need more men to contain him.

These rope men see the dragon every day up close and sometimes there is the occasional accidental exchange. Sometimes a warrior is burned a little or bitten but he is easily replaced. The tribe has many great warriors and rope men. It is a great nation.

Unfortunately, the new warriors know very little about the dragon. They are all like ants to the leviathan. To them it appears BIG. But nobody knows just how big it was yesterday—the dragon conceals its true growth. Not a soul contemplates its true size rightly.

As the warriors begin to lose heart that their pulling down the ropes appears futile to the great dragon’s mass and growing strength, the chieftain comes around time and encourages them to pull harder. One of them is about to challenge the foolish nature of the order but decides against it.

The chief has his servants offer them shiny new equipment and regale provisions—some from the dragon. And so they continue to feed the dragon and every day the dragon grows just a little bit more.

One day, the dragon breaks free of the cage and takes all of the people holding on to the rope into the air with it. The chieftain hears of the news and immediately asks, “Was feeding the dragon really a good idea?” One servant, that let go of the ropes early, the last man standing, offered this explanation, “Sir, it is not the feeding that was the issue, it was the trapping. You can trap a bear or a wild beast but it is not possible to ever really trap a dragon. Dragon’s must be handled most delicately. From my experience, I believe they must be first charmed, not forced down and contained.”

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