Replies

Allowing the invasion of Taiwan by the PRC is unacceptable. After Taiwan, they will move outward to the other islands and territories that they claim. Even if we decided not to act, millions would die.

I never said we should stand by and watch as the Chinese rape Taiwan. I do, however, support a waiting game right now. As I see it, the President is being careful not to give the Chinese a gift-wrapped causus belli to justify an invasion to the international community.

If a war does come, our navy alone--great as it is--cannot defeat the Chinese. For that, we need troops on the ground and planes in the air. It would take time to consolidate and focus our military for trouble in the Taiwan Strait--especially since Chinese planners almost certainly intend to consummate an invasion in a matter of days. The President, I think, is working desperately to wrap up our Iraq involvement as quickly as he can so that we can lower our troop commitment there in order to reallocate those forces where they are more needed. As emotionally and psychologically satisfying as publicly declaring our intention to militarily support Taiwan might be, it would serve no useful strategic purpose.

Finally, as I've asserted earlier, I think the driver behind the whole Taiwan invasion scare of the last several months has been the Chinese military. The Party, I think, would rather play for time until a more amenable American administration comes along. Why fight Bush when you can drink tea with Kerry (or his equivalent)?

"Allowing the invasion of Taiwan by the PRC is unacceptable. After Taiwan, they will move outward to the other islands and territories that they claim. Even if we decided not to act, millions would die."

I doubt that, once they reached the Phillipines their fleet would be in range of the full power of our air force coming in from the West coast and thats IF they could destroy our fleet. Japan did it at Pearl Harbor but only because their was no such thing as advanced radar sattelites. My guess is that they would move on the Middle East and claim oil based assets.