[Jim Noble]

Great (re)post, as usual.

Don’t know if you read my posts on this thread, but what do YOU believe would happen after a successful Chinese counterforce attack that sunk three or four CVN?

I certainly don’t believe we would kill millions or tens of millions of civilians in China and elsewhere.

An attack like that would be the ultimate validation of Mao’s “paper tiger” sneer.

Which is exactly why I expect that they have been working the problem since 1973.

[nathanbedford]

I quite agree with you, we would not retaliate with atomic weapons in the scenario you describe which would bring on the Apocalypse. Indeed, if my finger were near the red button I would not push it and no reasonable president would.

I quite agree that in the age of microwaves, lasers, satellites, hyperspeed rockets, Ray guns and God knows what else, the next attack will be as surprising as Pearl Harbor but it certainly won't be anything like December 7, 1941.

We spend enough, we should have that extra margin which this report argues we have squandered along with trillions.