An article in today's London Telegraph  ("HMS Ark Royal Put Up for Sale on ‘Military eBay' ") reports that UK's MoD website is offering Great Britain's just-mothballed aircraft carrier, the Ark Royal, and three Royal Navy destroyers for sale to the highest bidder. Maybe the Chinese will buy them. After all, they've got the money.It's not a joke. Tony Blair has been saying for a while now that China's rise -- and a more general shift of global power to Asia -- is the central geopolitical fact of the early 21st century. He's right  But I would argue that a conscious decision by Western elites to acquiesce in that shift is of at least equal significance.As Lenin said: "[p]robe with bayonets. If you encounter mush, proceed. If you encounter steel, withdraw." Lenin's heirs in Peking have to be pleased.Exhibit One is NATO's so-far anemic effort in Libya. Wouldn't, the British press has asked, the Ark Royal have come in handy in evacuating British citizens...(Read Full Post)