You have been playing too much Risk lately, maybe?
Posted on 05/10/2005 6:11:01 PM PDT by hedgetrimmer
The Middle East is just a blip. The American military contest with China in the Pacific will define the twenty-first century. And China will be a more formidable adversary than Russia ever was
For some time now no navy or air force has posed a threat to the United States. Our only competition has been armies, whether conventional forces or guerrilla insurgencies. This will soon change. The Chinese navy is poised to push out into the Pacific—and when it does, it will very quickly encounter a U.S. Navy and Air Force unwilling to budge from the coastal shelf of the Asian mainland. It's not hard to imagine the result: a replay of the decades-long Cold War, with a center of gravity not in the heart of Europe but, rather, among Pacific atolls that were last in the news when the Marines stormed them in World War II. In the coming decades China will play an asymmetric back-and-forth game with us in the Pacific, taking advantage not only of its vast coastline but also of its rear base—stretching far back into Central Asia—from which it may eventually be able to lob missiles accurately at moving ships in the Pacific. In any naval encounter China will have distinct advantages over the United States, even if it lags in technological military prowess. It has the benefit, for one thing, of sheer proximity. Its military is an avid student of the competition, and a fast learner. It has growing increments of "soft" power that demonstrate a particular gift for adaptation. While stateless terrorists fill security vacuums, the Chinese fill economic ones. All over the globe, in such disparate places as the troubled Pacific Island states of Oceania, the Panama Canal zone, and out-of-the-way African nations, the Chinese are becoming masters of indirect influence—by establishing business communities and diplomatic outposts, by negotiating construction and trade agreements. Pulsing with consumer and martial energy, and boasting a peasantry that, unlike others in history, is overwhelmingly literate, China constitutes the principal conventional threat to America's liberal imperium.
How should the United States prepare to respond to challenges in the Pacific? To understand the dynamics of this second Cold War—which will link China and the United States in a future that may stretch over several generations—it is essential to understand certain things about the first Cold War, and about the current predicament of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the institution set up to fight that conflict. This is a story about military strategy and tactics, with some counterintuitive twists and turns.
This would also mean cutting off all trade and blocading Russia, because it is a main supplier of weapons to China. This, in turn, could spark a war with Russia. Fighting BOTH the Chinese and Russians (And the Former USSR states still loyal to it)... Can't be done!
We do not need to hit every square meter. Just the major cities, military bases, dams and powerplants.
Also, Russia has signed a stragetic alliance with China. Beating China.. Almost Impossible. Beating China AND Russia... No way!
You said..."the fact that the vast majority wants the ChiCom government gone."
I frankly dont know for sure...and you may know.
But I wonder if they would retain the current rulers if it meant regaining their own 21 century Manifest Destiny.
Do the majority of Chinese believe this is their time to shine...and dominate. And they will go with the guys who will get them there?
? How can it be disproved, it is dependant on future events. Yes, today the Chicoms have control, but clearly they are threatened and are losing control as the economy grows.
we could shoot every friggan missile in our arsenal and still not destroy Red China completely.
Look, I'm not a military planner but even I know you don't have to wipe out the entire country inch by inch. Their infrastructure is vulnerable and not nearly as deeply developed as Western nations.
You conveniently overlook my point (again) that we should cut off the head and make friends with the body. That's the win. Your scenario is doom and gloom. I don't buy it...sorry. Go peddle that to the other team.
,,, I suspect China and Russia will use North Korea and make the most of the middle east to deplete US resources and then engage when she's on a weaker footing.
We had nuclear tipped Tomahawks on our destroyers to counter nuclear tipped Sunburns. But Bush 41 removed those. We had 18 SSBNs, now four of them are being converted to Tomahawk boats for land attack use using conventional warheads. The grand Navy of Reagan is fast dissapearing.
Our Navy is still the most powerful and most well trained by far, but we need the nuclear arms back on our ships. Just the mere presence of an Arleigh Burke with nuclear-armed Tomahawks would cause states like Iran to surrnder without a shot being fired and deter states like China.
China can nationalize all the industries that have offshored to China. They won't get hurt, but American corporations will. That is why our government would rather switch than fight. They seem to only represent the global corporation, rather than individual citizens these days.
You have been playing too much Risk lately, maybe?
Probably what they (China and Russia) will do... Also,they will try to use Iran, North Korea, and islamic terrorists to strike the first blow.
Also, both of those countries could smuggle in Nuclear cruise missles into Cuba, venesuelia, ect without our intel knowing about it.
It was not profits, it was ideology that drove the Carter administration. Remember Cyrus Vance as secretary of state? Dark days indeed. Profits are used by the left as a cover.
Boots on the ground always get the job done, even if the tangos don’t “get” the theories of deterrence.
BUT, A little PSYOPs/serious, irreparable mental damage helps out also. The Chinese Communist "leadership" needs a frontal lobotomy, plus a whole host of Rx served up cold.. If that can coincide with unprecedented “internal” problems, demonstrations and other unspecified issues, we may yet have a “peaceful” plan for China.
China should be Balkanized. Take China apart from within. If they want to play with the bull, they better get ready for the horns, and a simultaneous kick in the pants!
Carter also negoiated some really idiotic treaties with the USSR (Huge arms reductions, foreign aid, and such) If it were not for Regan, we would have been attacked.
That strategy has not and will not work against us elsewhere, and China has way too much to lose by doing so.
I'm not saying that is impossible or that they will never do so (they are a mistake prone society) but if they did, it would be devastating economically for them in the long term.
We should play them at their own game. Arm Taiwan and Japan with nukes in retaliation for their arming Iran and North Korea. Arm undergroud Chinese opposition movenemts in retaliation for their use of Islamonazis to strike us.
I do remember, that's why I mentioned earlier that they are the biggest threat to the current Chicom regime. However, I believe the success of their economy is becoming too widespread to keep the Chicoms propped up...and, they will get a 'soft' boot with lots of perks, unlike previous regimes.
Switch to Chinet?
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