[servantboy777]

Your not even comparing apples to apples when you speak of Iraq and China in the same conversation.

There is ample research from various media sources that could throw cold water on any notion that China is just blowing hot air.

China is indeed a formidable enemy, to discount their capabilities is nothing short of ignorance.

Logistically speaking, do you really feel we could sustain a protracted war on or near the mainland of China? They have the largest standing army in the world. They may still be behind in some technologies (what they haven't bought, stolen, or had handed to them), but shear numbers and familiar territory is certainly on their side.

China is NOT the poor lil nation it once was. Think also, we have so much manufacturing capital in China, an all out war would not only hurt their economy, it would devastate ours.

[Strategerist]

There is ample research from various media sources that could throw cold water on any notion that China is just blowing hot air

You're in big trouble if you get your military analysis from the "media"; that's your whole problem. Their military expertise is nonexistent and they only seek out military "analysts" that will tell them what they want to hear and support the stories they want to write.

If you recall, during the Fall of 1990 it was the media and their pet so-called military "analysts" telling you that tens of thousands of Americans would die in years of trench warfare being annihilated by Soviet superweapons while liberating Kuwait.

Logistically speaking, do you really feel we could sustain a protracted war on or near the mainland of China?

In what drug-addled fantasyland do you see the US fighting on the mainland of China?

You do get bonus points for at least mentioning Logistics.

The US is, and always has been, the God of Logistics and no country in history can match our experience and ability to sustain distant large-scale operations.

You SHOULD be asking how the Chinese could remotely sustain any combat outside of China, particularly over water, logistically. The answer is they physically couldn't.

[defenderSD]

Under no circumstances will we ever get involved in a land war in China. There's no strategic reason for a land war and we don't have a big enough army for that kind of war. Our strategic objective is to defend Taiwan against invasion by China. Precision-guided missiles and bombs are making that job easier than it was twenty years ago.

To successfully invade Taiwan, China would have to destroy Taiwan's air force & missile defenses AND defeat two US carrier battle groups. China has very little practical experience and expertise in air-to-air combat. Unless they improve a great deal in air-to-air combat and air defenses, their amphibious invasion force would end up as a tourist attraction for people in glass-bottom boats. As precision-guided weapons improve every year, an amphibious invasion of Taiwan becomes increasingly difficult.