A joint Chinese and Russian military exercise set to begin tomorrow is meant as a political signal to the United States, in addition to helping Moscow showcase its weapons for sale to China, U.S. defense and intelligence officials said yesterday.

"For the Chinese and the Russians, this is a message to the United States," one U.S. official said. "They want to see our bases in Central Asia and presence in Asia cut back."

The fact that the United States was not invited to observe the war games is a sign of the anti-U.S. nature of the exercises, said several officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Defense officials from India, Iran, Pakistan and Mongolia will be present in China to observe the exercises.

This story has been making the rounds the past 48 hours.

When Bush and Putin first met, Bush said he stared deep into Putin's eyes and saw his soul. This may be true. They both seem to have a penchant for dressing up in flight suits and taking jets for a spin. These two men bonded easily.. For better, worse, or unknown. After looking into Putin's soul, he and Bush made jokes about each other at a press conference in Texas. CNN's graphic overlay at the bottom of the screen said "Presidential Comedy". I remember clearly watching this, overwhelmed by how downright surreal it was. Here we are years later, and my annotates are not all that amusing. Its still just surreal.

This is another one of those things that feels like prep for a Taiwan invasion. But that's nothing new. I don't see anything new here at all actually. I'm not even sure why I'm commenting on it. Wargames go on all the time. On the Sino-Russia side, its against America. We've wargamed against Russia and China. I think we have even wargamed against Israel.

Just look at the pretty pictures of the presidents in flight suits, get that feeling of impending doom, and quickly run off to invest in Lockheed, Boeing, Raytheon, GD, Northrop, GE, Litton, Sun, CSC, and whoever else you can think of. Sip your tea. Watch the sunset. Relax.