China and the United States Are Preparing for War [Despite the Obama-Xi handshake deal]

Foreign Policy ^ | 11/13/2014 | BY MICHAEL PILLSBURY

[roadcat]

The move will have to come in the next two years while Maoist buttboy Obama is in charge, or in the transition period when the next Republican president is coming into office. We are most vulnerable then, esp. during our Winter.

Perhaps. But I pointed out in post #10 that we have a financial burden because of Obama, that will get worse after the two years is up. Even with a Republican president, we may not be able to finance a war. Obama has burdened us with debt that can't be repaid now, but will financially break us in future years. It costs money to rebuild a military and arm them, not to mention the logistics of getting them there. As you say, China will strike first at its neighbors, and play politics with Obama to keep us out of the fight.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

Good point re the economic condition of the US and any rebuilding of our armed forces.

What our Congress has to do is to prioritize which weapons/systems we will need during this time period such as more nuclear bombs/missiles, more attack aircraft and related weapons, and a couple more attack missile ships (small sized ones can do a lot of damage at a minimal cost. If we farmed out production to French, German, So. Korean and Japanese shipyards - in order to keep costs down - we could get a lot of bang for our buck in much shorter times than that required for US shipyard contracting/building.

Also, there are a shitload of new missiles out there produced by our allies and friends (Swedish, Israeli, French, Taiwan/ROC, etc). that we could buy en bulk.

We need more less expensive fighter planes than the F15’s, 16’s and 18’s of today, not to mention the ridiculously expensive F22 and F 35s. For example, the F5 was developed for use by our less developed allies overseas (SVN, Philippines, Japan, Taiwan, etc). With modern weapons platforms attached to them, they could become equalizers to more numerous enemy formations.

Money shifting from dream projects to more bread and butter weapons can be done fairly quickly, esp. if the Republican Congress and future White House gets off their lazy asses and pushes these appropriations on a fast track basis.

[roadcat]

I fear for the future. The USA versus China, is starting to remind me of what happened between Russia and Japan over a hundred years ago. Russia was powerful, but upstart Japan defeated them. It wasn’t total, because they negotiated a treaty brokered by Roosevelt. Both Russia and Japan had a financial burden and were ill equipped to continue the war of 1904-1905. Japan had modernized quickly and defeated a powerful western nation. Some of it was bad luck on the Russian navy. But Japan still humiliated them.

Fast forward to now. Obama has weakened our military, and just about financially bankrupted us. China is coming from behind, rapidly trying to build a navy and air force. Sure, they have their own money problems, but not as bad as ours. We have the stronger navy and air force. But our military infrastructure can quickly crumble if we don’t get the needed appropriations. We could have a run of bad luck fighting a war with China in China’s back yard. Starting to look similar to the Russia-Japan conflict of 1904-1905. It might be better for China to start a war now, while we’re stronger. A few years from now might be a problem for us, unless Republicans are fully in charge.