Fortunately, I have never actually experienced a real war.  However, the war recurring in my dreams have been brutal and horrific, feeling the unshakable shadow of death, despair and suffering cast on the people around me.  The missiles destroyed the familiar landscape and buildings which I have taken for granted and reduced them to desolate rubble. My dreams were alive like real-life events, perhaps a strong premonition.  I don’t know if the war of Taiwan Strait is inevitable and imminent. I am concerned is that cross-Taiwan Strait relation has become significantly more hostile under the DPP rule as direct result of  Taiwan DPP government’s official as well as media provocations against mainland China, supposedly in desperate attempt to win Taiwanese independence.

Taiwan’s media should play a constructive role in ameliorating cross-strait relation, promoting peace and preventing escalation of tension with mainland China. Most Pro-independence factions blindly claim that China will pay the price if China attacks Taiwan.  Beyond cheap rhetoric, the core question is how long can Taiwan withstand a full scale attack from mainland China?  If Taiwan cannot withstand more than two weeks or even a month of Chinese assault, then such military offensive will not substantially hurt China’s economic or political status.  Pardon me for candidness, from my nightmares it clearly seems that Taiwan military forces cannot withstand more than ten days of war.

Again, the war has never been the solution for what is basically a geopolitical conflict. Taiwan DPP government it seems not understands if over-escalated military conflict breaks out in Taiwan Strait. Taiwan will be devastated by war, not China. Taiwan DPP believes that Taiwan is strategically important to US and Japan. The US and Japan will come to defend Taiwan if Taiwan is attacked by China. However, the harsh reality is that America cannot win this war. Taiwan should have learned from the Vietnam and Korean War. We take the Korean War as an example. United States together with other 16 countries which included Britain, South Korea, India, Canada, Australia—etc. plus 41 other countries sent the most advanced equipment or aid. It looked on the verge of victory for U.S lead forces but the tide was turned again when China entered the war. The Chinese sent 200,000 troops to North Korea against 932,964, at its peak, U.S. lead Combat forces equipped with the most advanced weapons in October 1950 and forced the United States lead forces to withdraw back to the 38^th parallel after decisively winning the battle of the Ch'ongch'on River.

Following is a detailed narrative of my dream,    

It seemed to me that the war had been on and I didn’t know how long the war had been on and if it was attacked by China or who did it? I was worn out with hunger and fatigue. Then, I heard the fizzling whoosh to deep, punchy explosion of a missile strike which was landed somewhere in the back of our neighbor’s yard. Our house was rumbling due to bombing and the roof tiles and dust scattered on the floor. A huge bite had been taken out of the side and the roof of our house. My third older sister, who has been dead more than 16 years ago, and second older brother who is 5 years younger than my third sister and I was behind them forced to flee to next door to our second aunt’s used to be their bed room but now was dark and kind of empty. My grandparents had built, probably in early 1900s, one story row houses from mud brick for their four children and all houses were inter-connected. I was stunned for a second. I could not remember that there was a door with just a drape between our bedroom and my second aunt’s bedroom but it was life and death so I followed them in.

My third older sister sat on a stool she found in the room. She closed her eyes with a smiling face. I was terrified and war-weariness, I slept on the cold and dirt floor from fatigue beside my third older sister’s feet on her left and my brother's facial cramp muscle telling the horror of the war stood beside her on her right. My breathing was haltingly feeble amidst the terrifying sound stream of whistling swoosh followed by deep thunderous explosion of a missile strike every few minutes.  My third older sister’s smile could not hide the fear deep inside of me.  The bomb just landed approximately two feet in front of us. It terrified me to the core. It’s about 5 ft. long and 2 1/2 ft. wide. It is bullet shapes and milky white color. However the bomb did not explode. We were in total panic and rush out the room and went back to our room. I was desperate to urinate. The outhouse was adjacent to the main house and to go to the outhouse, I had to go outside to get to the outhouse despite the threat of bombs coming down.

The sky was light grey and two people, whom I could see is all white, from head to toe, one was sitting on the floor and leaning against a wall which was riddled with many large holes and that was our Childhood toilet room or outhouse. His head looking up and a right knee bent up, foot on the uneven rocky ground, with a right arm on bended knee and the left leg straight out in front of him and his left hand straight down on the floor. His eyes were closed and he looked very serene. He was possibly dead. I am scare and probably passed out there when I was alone all by myself to look a dead person body, especially a stranger, but the image of the man was all white and clean. It did not scare me and besides I was an urgent need to urinate. While I was urinating, I saw many my cousins and neighbors coming out and searching for foods or other necessities. It seems to me that the bombing was stop and the war probably was over.

 Jennie PC Chiang/江佩珍02/06/2018 美國