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The CEO of Stratfor wrote a book called "The Coming War with Japan" in 1991:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Friedman

After I told him this a few months ago when we were talking about this article, my dad read it a little more critically and found at least one blatant factual error. So take it with a grain of salt.

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I read publications by Stratfor and similar organizations on a semi-frequent basis (although I have not read the book in question), and "with a grain of salt" is an assumed prerequisite.

The authors do not intend to deceive or have lazy fact checkers. Instead the writings are intentionally speculative and many of the sources are often speaking off the record or sometimes trying to promote a specific political agenda (i.e. a Chinese official could have been the source for your stated fact).

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