It was only a matter of time.

Navy officials confirmed yesterday that an aircraft carrier battle group failed to detect a Chinese submarine that surfaced within weapons range of the USS Kitty Hawk. Anti-submarine defenses for the carrier battle group will be reviewed as a result, they said.

"It was not detected," said one Navy official of the encounter with a Chinese diesel-powered attack submarine. "And we're concerned about that, obviously."

The Chinese Song-class attack submarine surfaced near the carrier in deep waters off Okinawa on Oct. 26. It was armed with wake-homing torpedos and anti-ship cruise missiles.

I don't know with certainty that the Clinton administration is responsible for vastly improving Chinese military capabilities, so I'll leave it at that.

There are two possibilities here--someone on the Kitty Hawk screwed up and failed to note the proximity of an anomalous acoustic signature near the carrier, or far, far worse, the sub was undetectable by our current level of technology.

If the latter, then the Chinese just rendered the entire U.S. surface navy obsolete.

I think it highly likely that the U.S. will get carved up like a roast in the 21st century. We have no national will to fight and our technological and economic supremacy is old news. Either learn Chinese or convert to Islam, or cover your bets and do both...