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 Pacificâand 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 baseâstretching far back into Central Asiaâfrom 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 influenceâby 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 Warâwhich will link China and the United States in a future that may stretch over several generationsâit 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.
"The chinese hold enough of o ur debt to stifle our economy and if it continues to buy our debt to shut us down without firing a shot."
What happens to China if we tell them "Fine, we're stiffing you?"
I'm surprised you would ask such a thing.
The reason why no nation, ever would kick our asses, is because this is AMERICA, and as long as we have leadership willing to kick butt, we don't lose. We can hire the best from ANY nation to do the math that our kids cant do, if need be.
What we cant invent, we can buy.
Bigger does not mean better, unless the whole Chinese Army plans to swim to America. They would never get here on ships, or anywhere else important, because we have weapons that you cant see, reaching out and touching folks, while you cant touch ours. The thought that one of our Carriers could be hit by anyone is sheer madness.
There is no safer place to be on the planet, than somewhere within the protected zone of a US. Carrier Battle Group.
The bottom line, is that we wont wait to be attacked. China could not make a move without getting their toys blown up before they got to blue water.
It DOES prevent is a nuclear strike against OUR nation as well as prevent INVASION. Which is exactly what the ChiComs would do if we did not have a nuclear deterrant. The ChiComs will not invade Taiwan because one they are trained and equipped by us and two, even today there is the distinct possibility that both Taiwan and Japan have the bomb or could have them overnight. The Arab League has never attacked Israel since they got their nuclear arsenal. The palestinians do.
The palestinians only attack because of soft leadership in Israel but one day they will pay for their attacks.
such as free-electron lasers
Nukes were never meant to be used against smaller nations. They were designed as a deterrent against the Soviet Union, and in that regard they worked very well.
"It DOES prevent is a nuclear strike against OUR nation as well as prevent INVASION. Which is exactly what the ChiComs would do if we did not have a nuclear deterrant."
OK. So you're first talking about deterrence. Minimal deterrence seems to do the job very nicely--no one's lobbed any nukes at China, and they have a pretty small arsenal for a supposed major power. So, on that count, there's still no argument to be made for a larger nuclear arsenal.
As for preventing an invasion--that's what the Navy's supposed to do by commanding the ocean, isn't it? And how are the ChiComs supposed to invade America, anyway?
"The Arab League has never attacked Israel since they got their nuclear arsenal."
Actually, they did in 1973--and damn near succeeded, too.
"Nukes were never meant to be used against smaller nations. They were designed as a deterrent against the Soviet Union, and in that regard they worked very well."
By that argument, there is absolutely no need for the US nuclear arsenal. Please rethink your ideas a bit.
You know, there was an Austrian paperhanger who felt exactly the same way.
well, they still have about 940 more years of rule :). Not bad, huh?
Not for long.
Your the one that said nukes were useless and too expensive. If the Soviets invaded europe we would use nukes because they had a lot more troops and tanks than we do. How well would the Navy do without nukes? In a strictly conventional war extremely well. But the Chicoms have Sunburn missiles which can be armed with either conventional or 300 kiloton nuclear warheads. Not to mention the standard communist tactic of swarm attacks, overwhelimg defenses with SHEER NUMBERS. I never said China could invade us. Where did you get that idea? I meant THEY PREVENT OTHER COUNTRIES FROM ATTACKING AND INVADING. For example. Soviets crossing through alaska ring a bell? they didnt because we have nukes.
Now I'm puzzled. You seem to be assuming that we never needed nukes to begin with.
at 400 million dollars aday how do you finance an aconomy if you repudiate your debts?
If you stiff your creditor for approaching atrillion then who will lend to you? This would precipitate a economic melt down so do we stiff them or do we do what they want when it gets to nut cutting time?
China will be watching for the most likely response from the American voter, may God have mercy on Us!
Nice way to backtrack your original comments, saying that nukes were too expensive and useless. Please rethink your ideas a bit.
**That explains why Japan won World War II, I guess.**
Because back during WWI and WWII our country was not affected by the multiculturalism that we are experiencing today. Immediately after the wwii, 95% of all immgiration was European. The 1990 census indicates that 90% of all immigration, legal and illegal, is non-European. The fact is that a monocultural society is more compact and united, while a multicultural society tends to create their own enclaves, speak their own languages and is often loyal to their country of origin.
Hmmm. Let me rephrase that to mean, "You're assuming that we never needed nukes to counter the Soviet threat as it existed during the Cold War."
and our troops would be without boots!
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