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America is no longer guaranteed military victory. These weapons could change that.
The Washington Post ^ | August 16, 2016 | David Ignatius

Posted on 08/17/2016 5:36:21 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

The fight against the Islamic State may get the headlines. But it’s the military threats from Russia and China that most worry top Pentagon officials — and are driving a new arms race to deter these great-power rivals.

This question of how to deal with Russian and Chinese military advances has gotten almost no attention in the 2016 presidential campaign. But it deserves a careful look. The programs begun in the waning days of the Obama administration could potentially change the face of warfare, in the United States’ favor, but they would require political support and new spending by the next president.

A drive to build exotic versions of conventional weapons may sound crazy in a world that already has too much military conflict. But advocates argue that strengthening U.S. conventional forces might be the only way to avoid escalation to nuclear weapons if war with Moscow or Beijing began....

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Government; Russia
KEYWORDS: armsbuildup; china; counterterrorism; gwot; military; russia; usmilitary; weapons
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1 posted on 08/17/2016 5:36:21 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

How about a mini nuke in a 5.62 round?


2 posted on 08/17/2016 5:42:46 PM PDT by SkyDancer ("They Say That Nobody's Perfect But Yet Here I Am")
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Russia will not go to war with the US... unless we start it. The groundwork has been laid for that throughout the Obama administration with this absurd vilification of Putin. To lump China and Russia together may make sense in terms of theoretical weapons, but it shows a paranoid and unrealistic understanding of international issues in the real world.


3 posted on 08/17/2016 5:42:56 PM PDT by opus1 (This is all getting rather confusing.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

“These weapons” = President Donald Trump.

We aren’t winning wars because politicians, who are for some strange reason somehow in command, are mostly traitors and capitulators.


4 posted on 08/17/2016 5:42:58 PM PDT by Celerity
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Wasn’t the same sort of thing said before we were dragged into WWI and WWII?


5 posted on 08/17/2016 5:45:13 PM PDT by SandRat (Duty - Honor - Country! What else needs said? was let used as the NM reporter car)
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To: Celerity
Before you can win a war you have to know what victory would look like - what do you want to happen.

Killing a bunch of folks isn't a victory. So we lose - because we have no idea of what we want to happen.

6 posted on 08/17/2016 5:50:16 PM PDT by AndyJackson
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To: AndyJackson

This has been our state of affairs ever since Korea.

You can’t hit a target if you can’t identify a target.

Mind you, “Killing a bunch of folks” is a clear-cut goal in how we need to handle Islam.


7 posted on 08/17/2016 5:52:49 PM PDT by Celerity
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To: SkyDancer

I think they tried that back in the 50s...........


8 posted on 08/17/2016 5:53:35 PM PDT by Red Badger (Make America AMERICA again!.........................)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

DoD doesn’t spend wisely.

I don’t mean that they shouldn’t built things like railguns — I think they should. But their whole acquisition system is rotten. Things take too long, cost too much, and come in lacking features they should have.

It’s too many cooks in the kitchen, too much regulation and too much turf building by people who just care about getting ahead. They need major reform in the acquisition area.


9 posted on 08/17/2016 5:54:19 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy (“Islam has nothing to do with this.”)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The lesson we have learned in Vietnam and Iraq is we should not waste men’s lives attempting to save or build nations, because the Democrats will eventual gain power and stab our allies in the back.


10 posted on 08/17/2016 5:56:01 PM PDT by Jeff Chandler (Everywhere is freaks and hairies Dykes and fairies, tell me where is sanity?)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Off the subject but i just watched O’Reilly follow up a Milwaukee black riot segment with a crazed monkey attacking a walmart employee story and laughing about it.
it seemed so obvious with the connection, my opinion the producer made a big mistake.
expect the corrupt msm to be all over this tomorrow..


11 posted on 08/17/2016 5:59:34 PM PDT by mowowie (Press 2 for Deportation)
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To: SandRat

Can you imagine the type of soldier that would be in an army with SHRILLARY! as CIC?


12 posted on 08/17/2016 5:59:41 PM PDT by Rome2000 (SMASH THE CPUSA-SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS-CLOSE ALL MOSQUES)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

At no point is, or has, the US been guaranteed military victory. It has to be earned like anything.....


13 posted on 08/17/2016 6:00:24 PM PDT by GenXteacher (You have chosen dishonor to avoid war; you shall have war also.)
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Neutron bomb artillery shells kill only life and leave no residual radiation or lost property. If NORK starts a 2 million man banzai charge they’ll all be dead in minutes. Every single one.


14 posted on 08/17/2016 6:01:29 PM PDT by USCG SimTech
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To: Jeff Chandler

The winning post!!


15 posted on 08/17/2016 6:01:36 PM PDT by PhiloBedo (You gotta roll with the punches, and get with what's real.)
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To: opus1
Russia will not go to war with the US... unless we start it.

"Barack Hussein Obama. Mmmm, mmm, mmm!"

16 posted on 08/17/2016 6:03:52 PM PDT by 17th Miss Regt
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Great weapons are useless until there is the will to use them and people who will lead and fight. Right now our military has damned few and it’s a group that is getting smaller by the day.

Obama has deliberately emasculated our military by appointing weakling asskissers, getting field commanders fired for wanting to fight, making a PC policy more important than a war-fighting/war-preventing policy numero uno, and having a State Department that is so morally corrupt at the top that the bottom can no longer support it.

Treason, we know thy names - Obama and Kerry.


17 posted on 08/17/2016 6:04:56 PM PDT by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
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To: opus1

Putin is not a nice guy. But what he is, is predictable. His first priority...Russia.

Unlike most democRATS in the USA.


18 posted on 08/17/2016 6:12:11 PM PDT by Ouderkirk (To the left, everything must evidence that this or that strand of leftist theory is true)
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To: ClearCase_guy

You mean all those former gov employees that signed that letter a few weeks ago should think less about their big consulting fees and think more about the country?

If anyone thinks these guys are not terrified of a Trump Presidency, you are not thinking it through. Once they get a taste of his budget reviews, start warming up Air Force One for President Pence.


19 posted on 08/17/2016 6:15:42 PM PDT by Vermont Lt
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

How about we start by tossing our the diversity police in our military. People mater more than gear.


20 posted on 08/17/2016 6:16:25 PM PDT by RedWulf (End Free trade.)
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