Thousands Of Ships, Millions Of Troops: China Is Assembling a Huge Fleet For War With Taiwan

https://www.forbes.com ^ | Jul 27, 2021 | David AxeForbes Staff

[RomanSoldier19]

To have any chance of conquering Taiwan, China might need to transport as many as two million troops across the rough 100 miles of the Taiwan Strait and land them under fire at the island’s 14 potential invasion beaches or 10 major ports.

That’s a lot of people—far, far more than the People’s Liberation Army Navy can haul in its 11 new amphibious ships. To transport the bulk of the invasion force, Beijing almost certainly would take up into naval service thousands of civilian ships.

To that end, the Chinese Communist Party has created a legal and bureaucratic framework for taking over control of commercial shipping. Meanwhile, naval engineers have begun modifying key vessels to make them better assault ships.

All that is to say, the vast flotilla that would be both the vehicle for China’s assault on Taiwan—and the biggest target of Taiwanese forces and their allies—is taking shape.

“If the PLA invasion force was a million or more men, then we might expect an armada of thousands or even tens of thousands of ships to deliver them, augmented by thousands of planes and helicopters,” Ian Easton, an analyst with the Project 2049 Institute in Virginia, wrote in a recent report.

The PLAN’s eight modern Type 071 landing docks and three Type 075 big-deck assault ships together can haul around 25,000 troops. A drop in the bucket. To transport the balance of the invasion force, the Chinese navy can take up around 2,000 large commercial vessels crewed by around 650,000 mariners.

[Kevmo]

All peace, without exception, in the world depends on American treaties,
***Bullshiite. Greenland is peaceful because they mind their own bizness. Switzerland and New Zealand are peaceful without any input from American treaties.

promises and willingness to fulfill our promises to defend our allies from naked aggression.
***You’re starting to go into word salad here. I can tell that it means you have lost the argument.

Remove those treaties, promises and willingness to defend our allies
***Word salad

and the world reverts to chaos, war and domination by its most bad-*ssed military powers.
***while pointing out some obvious aspects [POTO] because ya got nowhere else to go.

As for US withdrawal from Korea, you might wish to talk to people in Seoul, South Korea about that.
***Sure, right after I talk to the folks in North Korea.

They will be most surprised to learn Americans have gone.
***The Norks won’t be so surprised.

South Vietnam is a different story — there Democrats in Congress not only forced US troops out, but also, after nearly 20 years (1955 - 1975), cut off military aid to the South Vietnamese government.
***You are so stupid not to be able to see the irony of your own remarks. Our policy DEPENDS upon politician willingness to defend, and our politicians are not willing to defend. But you jump up & down and make a big childish stink about how any attack on our carriers engaging in an act of war over an internal province dispute on Chinese soil would be tantamount to Pearl frikken Harbor.

It was similar to the situation in Afghanistan today — we can only help those guys so much, after that, they’re on their own,
***You make my points FOR me. That is how I know I have won the argument. Just replace Afghanistan with Taiwan... my point is made.

if they won’t defend themselves, we have to let them sink or swim.
***which is what I’ve been saying about Taiwan, @$$#0/e.

As for “other withdrawals”, you refer perhaps to our withdrawal from Germany, Japan, Italy, Spain... well, here’s a recent map of US military bases worldwide:
***Your wonderful politician brigade that you have SO much CONFIDENCE in when it comes to defending our enemies, well... those guys are retreating ACROSS THE WORLD. But don’t worry, when we luze 200k men and 5 aircraft carriers over an ally who hasn’t even declared independence yet... we will all rally around THEIR flag and go whoopdedoo. You are completely lost.
Article as example:
America’s ‘Great Retreat’ is well underway The US is rapidly lowering its military profile and backing away from commitments to allies in the Middle East and Asia
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3980258/posts

[BroJoeK]

Kevmo: "***Interesting hypothetical, that there IF statement.
It completely changes and ignores the original hypothetical which is if WE — the USA — take out the 3 Gorges Dam. "

Sorry, pal, but I'm not responsible for your wet dreams about US attacks on Chi-Com dams.
That seems to me an unlikely hypothetical, absent some extreme provocation such as the sinking of US aircraft carrier fleets, but if you get off on such visions, it's not my concern.

Kevmo: "***If that disappearance of a dam was due to the US striking targets on mainland China then China is free to take out mainland targets on US soil.
But you won’t be addressing that hypothetical any time soon, because you approach this subject matter like a complete jerk."

"Jerk" is what you're doing, pal, to get-off on your visions of a US attack on Chi-Com dams -- I hope you're enjoying yourself.
Of course I have no access to secret US military plans, but I'd expect, if anyone, Taiwan to attack those Chi-Com dams, not the US, and then only after Chi-Coms launched a massive attack against Taiwan.

So Chi-Com dams are 100% safe, so long as they don't mess with Taiwan.

Now get off your knees and stop kowtowing to the Chi-Com SOBs, jerk.

[BroJoeK]

Kevmo: "***Hell yes I’m waving the Bay of Pigs at us.
It was an island military engagement where the air support was withdrawn by wishy-washy political authority.
Hence, they were slaughtered."

Sorry, but you're totally confused.
The Bay of Pigs was an invasion of an island without adequate air & other support.
The US will not "invade" Taiwan, only the Chi-Coms are threatening to invade Taiwan.
If they do, then Taiwanese will defend themselves by, among other things, sinking as many Chi-Com ships and shooting down as many Chi-Com aircraft as possible -- that's the Bay of Pigs, Chi-Com troops stranded, unsupported on Taiwan.

Kevmo: "***You really go out of your way to misread things, don’t ya.
Misread this: You are a freeping jerk.
Argue the actual points instead of propping up bullshiite straw arguments."

Bay of Pigs is what the Chi-Coms will experience trying to land their military forces on Taiwan -- it has nothing to do with American actions there, "jerk".

Kevmo: "***The invasion fleet will be surrounded by tens of millions of migrants in a sampan civilian internal migrant “mass march migration”, all on CNN so that when we wipe out those civilians it will be a PR disaster.
Not that you are EVER going to address these hypotheticals that I bring up."

Those are nothing more than your own hypothetical wet-dreams, and I'm not responsible for them, I don't get-off on them, I don't care about your wet-dreams.

Alleged "civilians" migrating to Taiwan are one thing, a massive Chi-Com missile attack on & amphibious invasion of Taiwan is something quite different, all your wet-dreams notwithstanding, pal.

[BroJoeK]

Kevmo: "***AGAIN you bring up Pearl Harbor, which was a sneak attack on AMERICAN SOIL."

Kevmo: "This engagement in Taiwan will be us interfering with an ACKNOWLEDGED interior dispute on acknowledged Chinese soil."

The US has always promised to support Taiwan against Chi-Com naked aggression, it goes back to at least 1950 and has never changed.

Kevmo: "We lost stomach for the fight when 60k US died, we’ll luze stomach for the fight when 250k US soldiers die over an ungrateful ally who has not yet even declared independence."

Those are just more of your own wet-dreams, have nothing to do with reality -- dream away, "jerk".
Taiwan has no reason to declare "independence" from a Chi-Com government it doesn't recognize.
As for your threats to kill 250k Americans, duly noted, so how many of your own people do you expect to lose in the process?

Kevmo: "***Of COURSE not.
That’s what hypotheticals are all about.
So when you refuse to examine one set of hypotheticals but push your own set which ignores obvious parameters, you are being disingenuous."

Nothing disingenuous about it -- I'm just not responsible for your own wet-dreams, no matter how real & exciting they seem to you, they're not my concern.
The absolute reality is the US has long promised to help defend Taiwan against naked Chi-Com aggression and no-doubt the exact form our help takes will depend on circumstances.
So wet-dream away, "jerk".

Kevmo: "***That is how military planning works, numbN*ts."

So now you've become a strategic military planner, but working for whom? The Chi-Coms? The Biden administration?
Sure, I "get" it -- your big idea, your wet dream is to turn Taiwan over to the Chi-Coms without a fight.
You think that'll make everything good, I'm saying not so fast: it'll only move the line of conflict from Taiwan out to some other Asian islands & countries.
I'm saying there's no limit to Chi-Com ambitions and there's no benefit to be gained by kowtowing to them.

Kevmo: "***We are ALREADY in range of their most lethal missiles.
Duhh. Blindingly obvious gigantic duhh factor."

They are also in range of our missiles. Duhh. Blindingly obvious gigantic duhh factor.
We are also not entirely helpless in the face of their missiles -- Iron Dome, Patriots, THAADS, Aegis, lasers, etc.
We can defend ourselves if necessary.

Kevmo: "***It is certainly a very distinct possibility.
One that you refuse to address.
Because you’re so obtuse."

"Obtuse" is you, pal.
You have no clue -- zero, zip, nada clue -- what you're talking about.
The reality is the US has been working on anti-missile defense since Pres. Reagan's "Star Wars" in the 1980s, and we're not helpless -- there are at least half a dozen different anti-missile systems capable of attacking incoming missiles at various points.
Nobody claims they're all perfect, but they should be good enough to make the Chi-Coms think more than twice about launching missiles against us.

Kevmo: "***How are you so certain they’re NOT?
You aint.
So, commenting on the other side’s uncertainty is, once again, disingenuous.
That happens a lot with you."

Again, I'm not responsible for your wet-dreams -- you can fantasize all you wish, but reality is a very different place.
You should try it sometime.
Who knows, you might even like it?

[BroJoeK]

Kevmo: "***The real question is, how many Americans must die before we withdraw from the fight, like we did in Vietnam?"

So, I "get" it, your long-term strategic plan is to surrender everything always, defend nothing ever -- let the Chi-Coms take whatever they wish whenever they wish it -- kowtow now, kowtow forever, right?
And speaking of Vietnam... there are/were people like Sen. McCain who'd claim that our tactical loss in Vietnam was actually a strategic victory in turning all Vietnam, and with it all Southeast Asia, into a fortress of anti-ChiCom countries.
For example, in the South China sea, Vietnam is on the side of the Philippines, Indonesia & others against naked Chinese aggressions.

Kevmo: "***I will answer your hypotheticals if you answer mine."

You're here to defend & kowtow to Chi-Coms, so you're not going to answer anything honestly, are you?

Kevmo: "Upthread I pointed out how Taiwan is divided roughly into thirds, 1/3 ethnic chinese with perhaps no more than half willing to fight as a fifth column for China against Taiwan; 1/3 ethnically Taiwanese who want their own country; 1/3 soyboys who don’t"

That is pure hypothetical speculation on your part -- you have no clue what the real numbers are, none, but you are so, so excited about a Chi-Com invasion you can't see anything else.
I don't think many, if any, Taiwanese will respond favorably to naked Chi-Com aggressions.

Kevmo: "But you don’t address these obvious factualities because you are so disingenuous.
That comes up a lot with you."

Again, I'm not responsible for your wet-dream fantasies -- you can kowtow all you wish to your Chi-Com overlords, but reality is very different, and you have no clues, none, as to what reality in Taiwan is.

[BroJoeK]

Kevmo: "***You’re just a first class @$$#0/e.
On top of that writing class, you should take some kind of spiritual class to treat others as you would have yourself treated."

Dream on.
My posting rule -- and you should consider it for yourself -- is "no first use of insults."
If you go back & review upthread, you'll see I followed that rule.
But, once insults are thrown at me, then I return them in kind -- very often just by repeating your own words back to you, but if other insults seem more appropriate, then I'll use them to.
The idea is: so long as you insult me, you'll get insults thrown right back at you, but also, once you stop insulting me, then I'll stop insulting you.

Think it over...

[BroJoeK]

Kevmo: "***Take that up with the UN, who gave China legitimacy, as well as the US state department which does the same thing with their “one China” bullshiite policy.
The UN does not acknowledge Taiwan as a separate country, but as a province of China."

I think you word "bullshiite policy" is exactly right.
The reality is that Chi-Coms have never ever ruled over Taiwan, not for a single day, not for any part of it, and so have only naked aggression to support their claims to rule Taiwan.
The reality is that Chi-Coms have never ever legitimately ruled over mainland China -- they are an occupying military force of mass-murderers, dictators, kleptocrats, anti-democratic children of Marx, Stalin & Mao.
They have no legitimate claim to anything, much less to Taiwan.

Kevmo: "***I am not signing up for your Humpty-Dumpty definition because there are half a dozen countries in the world that this easily pulls off the list of independent countries."

So now you wish to change the subject to those other countries?

Kevmo: "***Basically a pile of bullshiite policy position to accommodate an intransigent and stupid ally."

Taiwanese are the opposite of "intransigent and stupid", they are a constitutional democracy, they are the worlds single largest producer of computer chips, they have among the world's highest standards of living and they put the murderous Chi-Coms to shame -- that's precisely why the Chi-Coms hate Taiwanese so much, Taiwan makes mainland Chi-Coms look as stupid & intransigent as they truly are.

From Day One the US has insisted that any unification of mainland China with Taiwan must be peaceful & lawful, and we will help defend them if necessary.

Kevmo: "***And the Chinese WILL say that their 15Million man sampan migrant flotilla is a peaceful and lawful migration from some internal provinces to an island internal province.
But you are too stupid to see this."

Sorry, but I am still not responsible for your wet-dream fantasies.

Kevmo: "***So you have confidence in our wavering political leadership, the same guys who threw our allies such as the Vietnamese and Free Cubans under the bus.
Got it."

I had a lot of confidence in Pres. Donald Trump.
As for Pres. Kamala Biden, sorry, but I'm clueless.

Kevmo: "***Because the policy is so stupid."

You might remember, the current policy was originated by President Nixon after some "ping-pong diplomacy".
It was considered a stroke of genius at the time and helped contribute to Nixon's reputation as "Tricky Dick".
Nixon intended it to "break the ice" with mainland China without giving up Taiwan.
It remains US policy today, regardless of your opinion of it.

Kevmo: "***And now they are building a 100 million man army and perhaps a flotilla of 15-20 million civilians in front of it so they can legally and peacefully begin administering things in Taiwan like how they did in Hong Kong when the time was right."

Those are pure wet-dream fantasies on your part.
You have no real clue what the realities are.

Kevmo: "***This points out the folly of the approach.
It should be independent of who is president at the time."

So should our immigration policies, but surprise! it turns out who occupies the White House has a huge effect on policies' execution.

Kevmo: "***Again, pointing out the folly of such an approach, not that you will ever be able to see it because you are so disingenuous.
That disingenuous thing comes up a lot with you.
You should look into it."

Again, my posting policy is to treat everyone with the same respect they show me, but to return insult for insult.
If you wish to be treated with respect on this thread, you can start by showing some.

Think it over...

[Kevmo]

Kevmo: “So we AGREE on this aspect of US unwillingness to defend allies [especially when those allies are hardly even willing to fight for themselves].”

Pres. Trump was big on
***Notice how you just blithely ignore the point I made and start talking about sumthin else. You really are a brojerk.

pushing our allies to contribute more to their own defenses, a
***And did Taiwan declare independence as a result? Nope. But they sure are willing to spill American blood over their internal disputes.

and was more successful at that than any other recent president.
***That and a bowl of cherries might help you to evade further and we can all pretend you somehow made your original point. You’re obfuscating.

Trump also wanted to withdraw from countries like Afghanistan which seem unwilling (after 20 years!!) or unable to defend themselves.
***And yet, even now , you can’t seem to apply this lesson to Taiwan, acting as if luzing our carriers over this ungrateful ally would be tantamount to Pearl Harbor.

Enough is enough.
***that is MY point, not YOUR point. You’re the one pushing to spill American blood over an ally who never declared independence.

Kevmo: “But you turn this around into incredible fkkking ugliness.
You try to make it look like the US luzing military assets in a Taiwan conflict would be like when OUR OWN FRIKKING territory was sneak-attacked.
You are incredibly dense, caused by your @$$#0/e inclination to ignore some obvious points just so you can cause a rift.”

The US does indeed have a long-term legal obligation to help defend Taiwan
***You go ahead and depend on those politicians, sparky. And when we luze tens of thousands of men, we’ll watch you jump up and down to rally around the flag. It is people like you that should be sent in FIRST.

— not the same as, say, Japan or Korea, but also not “nothing”.
***You’re trying to introduce other sets of elements in a Red Herring strategy, a violation of Occham’s Razor. Yet another way to tell that you have lost the argument.

Here is a map of US defense treaty obligations, notice it includes Taiwan:
***Notice how you keep adding these bullshiite elements. Now you’re engaging a circular argument fallacy, trying to argue the point I’ve been making all along. Best of luck relying on the US political leadership for doing the right thing for our allies.

The obvious point you ignore is our historical commitment to Taiwan,
***Frack off. I do NOT ignore this. YOU ignore the stuff I have been saying. We have a historical commitment to FORMOSA, from the time Chang Kai Shek moved his luzing forces onto that island and decided they were the rightful rulers of Taiwan AND China. How is THAT ignoring the historical commitment we have made to our ally?

you’d like to pretend it never happened and we don’t care now what becomes of Taiwanese.
***Again, frack off. YOU ignored my analysis that about 1/3 of the people in Taiwan are Taiwanese. About 1/3 are soyboys, and about 1/3 are ethnic chinese, no more than half of whom are ready to take up arms against the Taiwanese in a 5th column. YOU IGNORE THIS. So frack off.

By the way, what is this “cause a rift” talk?
***You caused a rift by being such an @$$#0/e. Now you’re trying circular reasoning, obfuscation, and other classic fallacies. You are lost.

You’re the one babbling insanely, so any “rift” is coming from you, pal.
***Hold up a mirror, pal. Try to get rid of those logical fallacies you keep using. Take a critical thinking class. Take a writing class. Take a morals class. Then get back to us and we can help clean up the rest of yfour bullshiite.

[Kevmo]

Kevmo: “***Again, pointing out the folly of such an approach, not that you will ever be able to see it because you are so disingenuous. That disingenuous thing comes up a lot with you. You should look into it.”

Again, my posting policy is to treat everyone with the same respect they show me,
***You are completely full of shiite, anyone can go back on this thread and see you’re the first to start tossing insults, brojerk.

but to return insult for insult.
***Now I get to call you a liar.

If you wish to be treated with respect on this thread, you can start by showing some. Think it over...
***I have been giving you far more respect than you deserve, brojerk.

[BroJoeK]

Kevmo: "It looks like the thread is where you wanted it to be, brojerk."

My posting policy is "no first use of insults", but then to return insult for insult.

If you get tired of being insulted, then show some respect.

[Kevmo]

Kevmo: “***This points out the folly of the approach.
It should be independent of who is president at the time.”

So should our immigration policies,
***Here we go again, with you and your fallacies. Now it’s time for the Red Herring. Look! a Squirrel!

but surprise!
***It is the extremely rare red herring squirrel!

it turns out who occupies the White House has a huge effect on policies’ execution.
***Which is MY point, long before we had a commie-pacifist libtard as president. NOT your point. MY point.

[Kevmo]

Kevmo: “***And now they are building a 100 million man army and perhaps a flotilla of 15-20 million civilians in front of it so they can legally and peacefully begin administering things in Taiwan like how they did in Hong Kong when the time was right.”

Those are pure wet-dream fantasies on your part.
You have no real clue what the realities are.
***In the 1970s, China had a standing army of 200 million. Cutting down to 100 million is easy. You remind me of the generals who opposed Billy Mitchell — he was specifically instructed not to carry 2000 pound bombs in his demonstration because “our enemies wouldn’t do that” and he wiped out the whole concept of battleships as a result. You are fracking clueless.

[Kevmo]

Kevmo: “***So you have confidence in our wavering political leadership, the same guys who threw our allies such as the Vietnamese and Free Cubans under the bus.
Got it.”

I had a lot of confidence in Pres. Donald Trump.
As for Pres. Kamala Biden, sorry, but I’m clueless.
***You keep going back to this bullshiite platform — that a policy is good when we have a good prez and bad when we have a bad prez. MY POSITION is that the policy is bad since it depends upon who the prez is or is going to be. But you are too stupid to consider this.

Kevmo: “***Because the policy is so stupid.”

You might remember, the current policy was originated by President Nixon after some “ping-pong diplomacy”.
***So it was a shiite policy from the beginning.

It was considered a stroke of genius at the time and helped contribute to Nixon’s reputation as “Tricky Dick”.
***It was wrongly considered... there, fixed it for ya.

Nixon intended it to “break the ice” with mainland China without giving up Taiwan.
***We’ll be luzing Taiwan soon enough, hopefully not with a lot of American lives lost.

It remains US policy today, regardless of your opinion of it.
***Bad policy. You seem to think it’s a good policy when we have a good prez, bad policy when we have a bad prez. Nixon kept Taiwan firmly in place as Chinese soil. Taiwan will pay that price.

[Kevmo]

Kevmo: “***So you have confidence in our wavering political leadership, the same guys who threw our allies such as the Vietnamese and Free Cubans under the bus.
Got it.”

I had a lot of confidence in Pres. Donald Trump.
As for Pres. Kamala Biden, sorry, but I’m clueless.
***Same bullshiite. Good policy with good prez, bad policy with bad prez. It means it’s simply a BAD POLICY. Period.

[Kevmo]

Kevmo: “***Basically a pile of bullshiite policy position to accommodate an intransigent and stupid ally.”

Taiwanese
***About 1/3 of the population of Taiwan is Taiwanese. About 1/3 are ethnic chinese, no more than half of whom will be fighting on the side of the chicoms in a 5th colum. And about 1/3 are soyboys who don’t care who’s in charge as long as they got their Starbucks and cable tv.

are the opposite of “intransigent and stupid”,
***It was that 1/3 who were ethnically chinese, the kuomingtang, that see themselves as racially superior and the rightful rulers over all of China and the ethnic Taiwanese. Those were the intransigent ones. The original policy kowtowed to them rather than to the Taiwan Nationalists. But you wouldn’t know such things.

they are a constitutional democracy,
***Even the US acknowledges them as a province of China. So does the United Nations.

they are the worlds single largest producer of computer chips,
***Immaterial. Red herring.

they have among the world’s highest standards of living
***Irrelevant.

and they put the murderous Chi-Coms to shame
***How, by not declaring independence? The brave Estonians declared independence from the USSR at the first chance they could get.

— that’s precisely why the Chi-Coms hate Taiwanese so much,
***No. Not True. There has been animosity between Chi-coms and kuomingtong but not that much between Chi-coms and Taiwanese. Naturally, you don’t know about these things.

Taiwan makes mainland Chi-Coms look as stupid & intransigent as they truly are.
***More word salad blatherbullshiite from you.

From Day One the US has insisted that any unification of mainland China with Taiwan must be peaceful & lawful,
***When China sends 15 million migrants in a sampan mass migration to Taiwan, it will most certainly be labelled “peaceful and lawful”. I’m sure your buddy Biden will go along with that. But you, naturally, say that such a thing could not happen.

and we will help defend them if necessary.
***No we will not.

Kevmo: “***And the Chinese WILL say that their 15Million man sampan migrant flotilla is a peaceful and lawful migration from some internal provinces to an island internal province. But you are too stupid to see this.”

Sorry, but I am still not responsible for your wet-dream fantasies.
***Your wet dream fantasy is that Biden will fight the Chinese on Chinese soil over a renegade province that has yet to declare independence.

[Kevmo]

Kevmo: “***Take that up with the UN, who gave China legitimacy, as well as the US state department which does the same thing with their “one China” bullshiite policy.
The UN does not acknowledge Taiwan as a separate country, but as a province of China.”
I think you word “bullshiite policy” is exactly right.
The reality is that Chi-Coms have never ever ruled over Taiwan, not for a single day, not for any part of it, and so have only naked aggression to support their claims to rule Taiwan.
***Then what prevents Taiwan from simply declaring independence? That is the delineating factor, the very raison d’etre for why we would even fight for such a petulant and ridiculous ally.

The reality is that Chi-Coms have never ever legitimately ruled over mainland China
***The UN and the US would disagree with you. It is categorized as a renegade province.

— they are an occupying military force of mass-murderers, dictators, kleptocrats, anti-democratic children of Marx, Stalin & Mao.
***Take that up with the UN. Send your forces to die on that hill.

They have no legitimate claim to anything, much less to Taiwan.
***Wrong. China is not only a UN state [Taiwan isn’t] but they are one of the 5 permanent members of the Security Council. As usual you don’t know what you are talking about.

Kevmo: “***I am not signing up for your Humpty-Dumpty definition because there are half a dozen countries in the world that this easily pulls off the list of independent countries.”

So now you wish to change the subject to those other countries?
***We are talking about the DEFINITION of a STATE. By the very DEFINITION, it would encompass OTHER STATES. Surely, even YOU can’t be this stupid.
https://mckinneylaw.iu.edu/iiclr/pdf/vol12p25.pdf

[Kevmo]

You drew first blood. You violated your own stated policy.

[Kevmo]

I will go back and see that you were the first to throw insults. By your own bullshiite policy, it should be up to you to simply stop posting on this thread because you have polluted it.

You could open the same exact thread and we could both agree to not insult each other. But I don’t trust you, we’d need an agreed arbiter. Until then it appears to be the standard free-for-all that happens on FR threads.

[Kevmo]

Kevmo: “***If that disappearance of a dam was due to the US striking targets on mainland China then China is free to take out mainland targets on US soil.
But you won’t be addressing that hypothetical any time soon, because you approach this subject matter like a complete jerk.”

“Jerk” is what you’re doing, pal, to get-off on your visions of a US attack on Chi-Com dams
***So yet AGAIN you refuse to address the hypothetical and then insert your own insults. Like I said, this thread is exactly where you wanted it to be.

— I hope you’re enjoying yourself.
***This thread ended up exactly where YOU wanted it to be. Take a writing class. Take a critical thinking class. Take a morals class. Then get back to us.

Of course I have no access to secret US military plans,
***Weasel preface

but I’d expect, if anyone, Taiwan to attack those Chi-Com dams,
***And... here you go... AGAIN. You refuse to address the hypothetical presented, only gonna talk about the one you wanna talk about. Like the jerk you are.

not the US, and then only after Chi-Coms launched a massive attack against Taiwan.
***Standard first class jerk approach to things.

So Chi-Com dams are 100% safe, so long as they don’t mess with Taiwan.
***They’re apparently safe from your hypothetical examinations as well. The chi-coms should employ you as a special counter intelligence spy.

Now get off your knees and stop kowtowing to the Chi-Com SOBs, jerk.
***Frack off, Humpty Dumpty.

[Kevmo]

Sorry, pal, but I’m not responsible for your wet dreams about US attacks on Chi-Com dams. That seems to me an unlikely hypothetical, absent some extreme provocation such as the sinking of US aircraft carrier fleets, but if you get off on such visions, it’s not my concern.
***This is as close as a jerk like you comes to actually examining a hypothetical. But no worries, you can post pictures of aircraft carriers that are really cool.