[defenderSD]

China is not a backward nation militarily, but the task of invading an island nation 90 miles offshore is extremely difficult in this age of precision-guided weapons. It's just much easier to sink a ship than it was 20 years ago. It's uncertain whether China will every be able to conquer Taiwan without nuking Taiwan first.

Their military build-up could be to some extent a bluff to make China appear to be able to defeat the US Navy and Taiwan's military. If spineless left-wing presidents then are elected in both Taiwan and the US (Kerry, Hillary, etc.), then China might be able to bluff the US into staying out of a war over Taiwan and bluff Taiwan into surrender by threatening to nuke them. That may be their strategy regarding Taiwan. They certainly have been acquiring a lot of high-quality military hardware over the last ten years.

[Williams]

Bottom line is the talk of nuclear war is insanity. If it goes beyond tactical, both societies will be decimated if they start trading cities.

The key to peace and stability is our maintaining a conventional force second to none which the Chinese would not dare test. I fear we are lacking this or heading in that direction. I've seen nothing from Bush similar to Reagan's expansion of the navy.