Posted on 05/29/2021 9:58:41 AM PDT by blam
Biden’s nominee for assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict, Christopher Maier, if confirmed is sure to get the attention of Beijing given his words this week to the Senate Armed Services Committee on Taiwan. The man who is also head of the Department of Defense’s Defeat-ISIS Task Force urged Congressional leaders in a Thursday briefing to establish a program for US special forces to train local troops in Taiwan toward deterring a possible “Chinese invasion”.
As the official tapped to oversee all US special forces he’s pushing an irregular warfare Vietnam-style preparedness scenario in Taiwan, which China claims as its own. “I do think that is something that we should be considering strongly as we think about competition across the span of different capabilities we can apply, [special operations forces] being a key contributor to that,” Maier told Senators.
He described that Taiwanese forces must be prepared to defend against an “amphibious landing” by China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
“I think [we could build] on some of the areas that they may not be thinking of … If there is a Chinese military advance, there could be some opportunities for resistance networks or other capabilities that we would leave behind against a potential enemy amphibious landing,” he said.
According to a summary of his remarks by Military.com, he described further:
Maier said that special operators could help Taiwanese troops hone their skills, and mentioned resistance networks and counteracting potential enemy amphibious landings as examples.
Information operations is a key area where special operators can help conventional forces deter Chinese aggression, he said. Improving how U.S. special forces conduct information operations will be one of his top priorities, he added.
But there’s no doubt that any significant US special forces presence on Taiwan would itself be a severe enough red line to trigger war with China, thus the very action that Maier’s proposal is aimed to deter would likely fast become reality for any such training program could get off the ground.
Days ago Taiwan’s foreign minister Joseph Wu in a PBS Newshour interview warned that China is “preparing for war” against Taiwan, and further affirmed that the increasing PLA war drills will soon slide into a real conflict situation
“I think Beijing has been preparing for war against Taiwan, and that is what we have been seeing. They are preparing for it,” Wu said. “If you look at the number of sorties, it’s around 2,900 times last year. So, the threat has been increasing. And when we examine in a closer way, the Chinese sometimes even cross the middle line of the Taiwan Strait.”
I’m ok with this if we had Trump.
A million men with rifles and nowhere to go is the greatest deterrent of all.
It’s 1964 all over again.
The USA involved in a war between China and Taiwan? Dumb idea.
Biden and woke military does not make Chicoms tremble.
It’s gonna be awesome. An amphibious attack probably. Targets of opportunity for the defenders. Is Taiwan willing to do what the Israelies are capable of? Are they willing to die defending their country knowing they’ll probably lose? Losing a million unmarried military men is nothing to the Chicoms. Go nuke. Mine the waters. Let them know there’s no US to escape to. Then there’s the other countries that have a bone to pick with China. There’s safety in numbers.
This is just another guy from the military industrial complex looking for some job security for his buddies.
Where's Douglas MacArthur when we need him?
"Collins discussed the possible use of nuclear weapons in Korea with MacArthur in December, and later asked him for a list of targets in the Soviet Union in case it entered the war. MacArthur testified before the Congress in 1951 that he had never recommended the use of nuclear weapons. He did at one point consider a plan to cut off North Korea with radioactive poisons; he did not recommend it at the time, although he later broached the matter with Eisenhower, then president-elect, in 1952. In 1954, in an interview published after his death, he stated he had wanted to drop atomic bombs on enemy bases, but in 1960, he challenged a statement by Truman that he had advocated using atomic bombs. Truman issued a retraction, stating that he had no evidence of the claim; it was merely his personal opinion"
I worry about our senior officers since DADT, LGBT, PC/MC etc. The SF A teams are probably like I had in 67-68. I had
great NCO’s. In fact, I was taught about the jungle, plus leeches on my leg on my first OP by a SSG in the yard company
I had. I do not trust senior field now.
Robert McNamara will get us out of this pickle, besides they’re only sending ‘advisers’.
Did Harris order him shot ?
The problem I have with stationing soldiers on Taiwan is two fold. One, they will be housed on a base, which would be an initial target. The advent of modern, long range precise weapons means that the old thinking of basing your army and logistics in just a few locations needs to be reassessed. The second problem is logistics and supply. Once the action starts it will be difficult...perhaps impossible to supply them. The Chinese will attempt to starve the island. Are we going to supply all of Taiwan? (As my third grade teacher said, “And did you bring enough gum for everyone?)
How much difference would the few thousand or so troops the US deployed make? Given the population of Taiwan and the number of invading Chinese, even if they were all James Bond and any Arnold Schwarzenegger character, their impact would be comparatively minimal. Is the intent to make the men there a tripwire guaranteeing US involvement? As the guy on the ground, that role would suck. Let’s not tie the US’ hands in advance with some huge amount of logistics overhead that might be desperately needed someplace else.
I’ve always said they need to follow the Swiss (or what the Swiss did until recently): send every army conscript home with his rifle, a locker and 100 rounds of ammunition. Bring them back once a year for a day of updates, practice and BBQ.
Most Taiwanese, even more than Americans, have a statist mindset, and could never accept what that means for society.
The Chi-coms have been very good to the Biden family. He can’t afford to lose his 10%.
Any member of the US Armed Forces sent to Taiwan will be sent there as a display of deception because as Hunter’s hard drive clearly shows....the Butchers of Beijing own the Bidens.
While I agree that training SF in Taiwan would be grand, what is needed on top of that is a complete, pre-attack Unconventional Warfare strategy.
That is, from the moment the mainland begins hostilities, things should start to go terribly wrong for them.
Chinese war theorists have long proposed distracting the US prior to an attack on Taiwan with UW, using everything from bio to nuclear. This also points out the obvious, that an attack on Taiwan would have a tight timetable.
The Russian had a similar problem with a potential invasion of western Europe. Because they planned to use vast amounts of chemical weapons, everyone in their army would have to wear butyl rubber tap suits. They *had* to make it to the ocean within two weeks, at which point they would just lie down, from exhaustion, dehydration, starvation, and living in their own filth. Every day beyond that they would lose 10% of their forces.
So the US strategy was to delay, delay, delay, with that goal in mind. Some nicknamed it the “meat grinder strategy”. Even a ferocious dinosaur will die in a tar pit.
So what has China been doing of late? With an eye to their plans, they have been sending fleets of hundreds of small fishing boats into the coastal waters of several nations, who have promptly destroyed them.
Are they looking for weak nations to invade? But the assumption must be for a tie in with a Taiwan strategy.
No.
Home-porting a few ships in Taiwan has some advantages.
Would be a huge deterrent to a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. Since there is no land connection between the two countries, guerrilla warfare is not a real threat.
With the US Navy presence, China has no chance of landing troops on Taiwan. China would be lucky to make it out of their ports.
Taiwan has F-35s and with support of its allies, would dominate the air space.
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