It should matter little to the Chinese that American diplomats and a handful of their western allies will not be attending the Beijing Winter Olympics in February. What truly matters is that the Russians are coming. 

NONG KHAI, Thailand -- You can see China's  inexorable southern thrust along the Mekong River where tall, fanciful, Chinese buildings sprout nearby on the Laos side of this sleepy northern border, sparking hopes and fears about Beijing's influence and intent in Thailand.

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) chief's recent visit to Bangkok amid a flurry of lucrative U.S. military and business deals, may lure Thailand to favor the U.S. and not China in the future, but the rivalry is heating up.

"Thailand has been leaning toward China, and away from the U.S., for two decades," said Benjamin Zawacki, Bangkok-based American author of "Thailand: Shifting Ground Between the U.S. and a Rising China."

"In the military sphere, relations with the U.S. are arguably still deeper, but the gap is closing swiftly," Mr. Zawacki said in an interview.

Many Thais celebrate Chinese ancestry which dates back more than 700 years, in contrast to the persecution they suffered in Thailand during U.S.-led anti-communist purges in the mid-20th century.

Hidden in plain sight, the extreme hypocrisy of the U.S. position on NATO and Ukraine cries out for journalistic coverage and open debate in the USA’s major media outlets. But those outlets, with rare exceptions, have gone into virtually Orwellian mode, only allowing elaboration on the theme of America good, Russia bad.

Aiding and abetting a potentially catastrophic -- and I do mean catastrophic -- confrontation between the world’s two nuclear superpowers are lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Like the media they echo and vice versa, members of Congress, including highly touted progressives, can scarcely manage more than vague comments that they want diplomacy rather than war.