Posted on 11/16/2006 12:11:43 PM PST by Tulsa Ramjet
Taiwan leased some reactors from the US about 25 or 30 yrs. ago. The CIA had spies in country who found out the researchers were dabbling in weapons grade material production. State Dept. and CIA officials quickly shut down the program. No doubt the Taiwanese are savy enough to restart the program if needed.
My future daughter in law loves the mainland people and hates the mainland government. Her view may account for the stats...seems to be the prevailing feeling.
We seriously need to get the rest of her family here.
Thank you, Bill Clinton!! Aren't you proud of your legacy??
"That is suicide for Taiwan."
well, the idea that 900 missiles pointed at you can be quite unsettling. if I was a tawianese leader, I would be developing as many defense treaties as possible.
Since the World War ended,you could forgive the US for ignoring IRBMs,while the likes of China or Russia still need those to deal with their numerous regional rivals.I read a while ago that the USN was considering modifying the US Army ATACMs tactical ballistic missile for use on it's surface ships.As well as the possibility of the Virginia class boats being modified to recieve IRBMs in the future.The technology & basis for American IRBMs exist.
I think Papa Bush made the Taiwanese shut down their N-programme officially in 1988.They probably still have the capability to reheat it,but the devil is in the details.They don't have a whole lot of cruise missiles,which anyway are vulnerable to these 900 odd Chinese missiles.Their F-16s or Mirage-20005s could carry nukes but their airbases would be the first target of Chinese strikes & these aircraft would be engaged in air-defense & anti-ship missions.They anyway dont have the combat radius to hit strategic targets in the PRC.Submarines would have been the ideal platform for carrying N-cruise missiles,but Taiwan has only 2 aging Dutch boats & 2 obsolete American boats.& It's unlikely they would get any new subs.
Taiwan is spending a realistic amount on defense. The problem is that the US navy and Rumsfeld screwed the Taiwanese for its own political purposes. Here's something on my blog written by an expert in US Taiwan military relations.
http://michaelturton.blogspot.com/2006/11/how-us-internal-politics-helps-drive.html
Essentially what happened was the US Navy overpriced the subs so that Taiwan would reject the deal, so that no conventional sub capacity would be built in the US.
Vorkosigan
taiwanese are divided seriouly! 40% of taiwanese support final unity with mainland. 20%-30% of them support final independence. the rest are middle-on-way. but almost 70%+ of them suppor to keep status quo for time being... good luck ,taiwan!Credible surveys rarely find more than 15% of the population supporting annexation to China. The vast majority of the population supports the status quo -- which is de facto independence. Vorkosigan
Where IRBMs have great utility is in situations like the European Theatre during the late 1970s and 1980s. Such situations, while not applicable to CONUS short term, are sure to occur again and again. Even in CONUS, if some of our southern neighbors go for nuke warheaded (or even conventional) IRBMs, our lack of them will not be a good thing. Final note, a TEL with an IRBM can roll on a transport plane and be anywhere in the world within one day.
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