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They say beggars can't be choosers, but that doesn't mean they have to be chumps.

Right now we are being chumps when it comes to China.

We're the country that owes so for China, that means anything goes.

Any cyber attack against any US company, any US agency, any US military installation. Anytime, pretty much all the time.

They attack us because they don't expect squat from us.

Why? Because we owe them billions, that's why.

Because they finance so much of our debt, that China figures we are in their debt, and not about to risk rattling our financial sugar daddy.

Leaving aside the fact that China needs us as much as we need China--that they wouldn't be in the position they're in, if not for our buying so much of their stuff.

No it doesn't matter--we're the ones stuffed--and always on defense.

Even as China so blatantly and flagrantly steals our stuff on what's become a cyber-offensive.

I mean, they're not even hiding it; hacking into not only US diplomatic and economic sectors, but our military computers, our defense contractors' computers--so many computers at so many sites, so fast, that they all leaving a calling card.

Because I think China figures our bluff is a lot worse than our bite and they think given all the money we owe them, we're not going to say boo to them.

It's the kind of behavior that emboldens our enemies; this is the stuff of which consequences should have meaning, and a lack of response should say everything.

I say, let them go ahead and try.

Smart economists say I might regret that, and that we'll all end up paying a lot more for a lot of stuff, if we force the issue.

I say, go ahead, force the issue. What have we got to lose, but our dignity?!

I'd sooner pay a little more for the otherwise cheap junk I risk not getting from China, than the far pricier loss of face, continuing business as usual with China.

All I know is just because we've lost our cash doesn't mean we've lost our backbone.

We're a great country. Let's start acting like one.