This has to be the most amusing thing that I’ve read in quite a while. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that President Trump’s proposal to build a “Golden Dome” defense system has deeply angered China, Russia and North Korea. Those three adversaries are complaining that “the missile-defense project is driving a dangerous new arms race.”

President Trump’s Golden Dome idea is said to have been inspired by former President Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) and Israel’s Iron Dome. The new system would employ existing ground-based and newly constructed satellite-based missile interceptors to better protect America against hypersonic glide munitions and low-flying ballistic missiles. These happen to be the armaments that the three adversaries are actively collaborating to build and stockpile as part of their joint effort to annihilate America. They are miffed that we would have the temerity to think about developing a shield that would prevent their grenades from landing on our heads when they lob them. Unbelievable.

The three countries couch their complaints in statesman-like language. According to the North Koreans, the Golden Dome is the “largest arms-buildup plan in history.” The Chinese and Russians recently issued a joint statement calling the project “deeply destabilizing.” A Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman reportedly said that the plan “represented a direct disruption to the foundations of strategic stability.”

These North Koreans, Russians and Chinese sound like really nice fellows. They are claiming to be peace-loving people who are trying to preserve global order, while we continue to militarize. We shouldn’t be fooled.

We all know about China’s massive buildup of warships, aircraft carriers and other offensive weaponries over the last several decades. In recent years, it has aggressively threatened its neighbors who are growing increasingly fearful. The Wall Street Journal recently wrote that “Putin has retooled Russia’s economy to focus only on war.” North Korea’s affinity for pyrotechnics needs no introduction.

The loud protest issued by those three autocrats against the Golden Dome smacks of desperation. They are keenly aware that there is no chance they would be able to match America, together with its allies, in a real arms race. It takes gargantuan amounts of money to build these advanced weaponries. China does have some economic heft, but it has too many mouths to feed and knows that it cannot afford to divert too much of its limited resources to militarization. With the Western alliance waking up to the threat that China and its allies collectively pose to it, all indications are that America, Germany, the U.K., France, and others, are going to accelerate defense spending. That is the last thing these autocrats want to hear.

I am reminded of the soccer coach who knows that his relatively weak team cannot compete with its much stronger opponent in a match. After his team scores a freak goal to equalize the score, he starts to look nervously at his watch. He desperately waits for the referee to blow the final whistle so his team can bank the lucky point. Several minutes later, in his state of agitation, he loudly berates the referee for needlessly prolonging the game. His protest is unjustified because the referee is the official timekeeper and his authority must be respected. After he continues to ignore the referee’s admonition to stop his angry outbursts, he is red-carded and ejected from the sideline.

Those three autocrats may want to focus their energies on building strong teams to compete on the field of play, instead of relying on someone else for favors. To Xi Jinping’s credit, despite his fixation on Taiwan and his assortment of belligerent behaviors, he takes time to bake bread for his people. His two pals in Moscow and Pyongyang have no such cooking interests. They rather like to spend all of their waking hours making firecrackers. Somehow, they have conditioned their people to keep their mouths shut, even when their stomachs are growling from hunger.