Posted on 03/18/2021 11:16:36 AM PDT by RomanSoldier19
US defense officials are increasingly warning of the potential for conflict with China over Taiwan.
There is almost no way in which the US could intervene in that conflict without devastating losses.
Lt. Col. Daniel L. Davis, ret, Defense Priorities Thu, March 18, 2021, 7:16 AM·5 min read Shiyu Kinmen County Taiwan China Shiyu, or Lion Islet, one of Taiwan's offshore islands, with the Chinese city of Xiamen in the background. Carl Court/Getty Images US defense officials are increasingly warning of the potential for conflict with China over Taiwan.
There is almost no way in which the US could intervene in that conflict without devastating losses.
See more stories on Insider's business page.
Many of America's leading military and political figures have issued increasingly alarmist warnings in recent days about the potential for conflict with China, especially related to issues surrounding Taiwan.
But before the US gets into a crisis that brings it to the threshold of war - or finds itself stumbling into one - policymakers and military leaders need to address some hard realities.
There is almost no scenario in which the United States can successfully intervene in a war between China and Taiwan that will not leave our country in far worse shape than it is right now; in a worst-case scenario, American territory could be struck by nuclear missiles.
In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee last week, Adm. Phil Davidson, commander of US forces in the Indo-Pacific, warned that Chinese military developments looked to him like a nation planning for a war.
Davidson added that he believed China would attempt to forcibly reunify Taiwan "in the next six years." To guard against this possibility, Davidson asked Congress to provide a whopping $27 billion in additional funding over the current defense budget.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
So I guess the six assurances and the Taiwan Relations Act don’t mean anything anymore?
The US should just sell Taiwan two fully armed Ohio Class subs.
That should reduce tensions.
I agree, why should we engage in a war with China over Taiwan? The Asia Pacific nations need to quit squabbling and start cooperating to urgently build a solid defense of their own. We should not be the nuclear umbrella for them. Sell them plenty of nukes and weaponry, give them training and tell them they are on their own. The same goes for Europe.
Maybe Taiwan falling to China will wake up the US that we need to be totally independent from China.
The leftist lunatics in the control of our government will entice Chinese aggression with our weakness and wokeness and in the end get us all nuked.
You sound pretty sure of yourself. As Yogi Berra once said, predictions are really hard, especially about the future.
Nah, just stop all trade with them, revoke normalized trade relations, expel all Chinese nationals, and continue to sell arms to Taiwan. The good stuff.
China is essentially a country cobbled together from lesser countries. Almost every major ragion would like to break away. Weigirs, Mongolia, Taiwan...if China allowed Taiwan to walk away other would soon follow suit and the country as we know it would vanish... They see Taiwan and making an example out of it and Hong Kong as the key to the CCP strength and longevity. They will do ANYTHING to maintain that including using nukes. If the SCS falls after they have claimed it, it will be construded as a direct attack on the homeland, for which they would defend to the death. Without it, they have no way to feed itself...
China to Taiwan is about 100 miles. That’s quite a swim. I’d call it unusual.
SCS....South China Sea?
Just because the Chinese communists want something doesn’t mean it’s theirs.
Children learn that pretty young.
If the Chinese take Taiwan, they will consolidate control of the entire China Sea, the shipping lanes, the oil reserves; they will be in a position to refuse our Navy the ability to navigate in the area, neutralizing much of our presence in the Asian Pacific; and will gain huge leverage over Japan, who will consider it an existential threat and be pressured to come to terms with China at the expense of our alliance. . This is not about hurt feelings or “face’ or pride. This is about the Chinese drive to be the dominant world superpower. They are developing a blue water navy, with control of the western Pacific as their goal.
This is why Trump was wisely encouraging the quadrilateral “arrangement,”
with Australia Japan and India. He correctly perceived that China’s intentions are potentially lethal to the civilized world. Sadly, I see no reason to believe that the Biden regime will do anything to stop them, and neither do the Chinese; and that is why an actual military action has become far more likely than it would have been even six months ago.
They wouldn’t nuke us. But they would send some cruise missiles into Long Beach or San Francisco.
But they would not do enough damage to cause their containers from arriving.
And Joe would turn around and say, Thank you.
Yahoo is total leftist propaganda. I guess now the effort is to convince us that we can’t protect Taiwan because we “lost” a war game. This could not be more transparent. I’m becoming more and more convinced that China won the election. Watch what transpires and ask yourselves who is the ultimate beneficiary of a weakened, distracted military, open borders and degraded energy infrastructure. It ain’t us.
They have an industrial capacity for making chips that China needs.
It would be stupid for us to respond with more than air defense instead of just going after Chinese ships and merchant vessels leaving or bound for China.
“Nuclear weapons will NEVER be used again in anger. There is no scenario where a nuclear power gains an advantage by pulling nuclear trigger first.”
= = = = =
Look at who is in charge of the country now (if anyone really is), think, and then say that again...
You think these American Communists really care about advantage? They will do anything and everything to bring this nation down to its knees, or even lower.
you don’t understand the Chinese...at all. To their people it does. To be pulled back from that claim is to lose face...to lose the faith of the people, of teh CCP. To lose power. Xi believe he and China are destined for greatness...like Hitler, like Mao, like Stalin. Like the Japanese in WWII. They believe that the Han race is superior...it is openly acknowledged and discussed in China...that we and our systems are flawed. And they have been teaching that for decades. History is repeating itself just as we seem intent on self-immolation.
There is certainly the scenario that existed in WWI: one power has nukes, the other does not. The other scenario reduces to that one: a first strike takes out the other power’s nukes. With regard to the latter, don’t forget that neither Putin nor Xi would be bothered by losing 20% of their populations if it meant the total destruction of the US.
The same way Argentina cared about the Falkland Islands, leading to a war with the United Kingdom in 1982. It was a thorn in their minds that had to be dealt with. Not that they needed it or wanted it. Just because. China will start a world war because of having a mental fart about Taiwan, regarding the non-commie Chinese leaders there.
Sad thing is that Taiwan was an independent nation after the Japanese gave up their territorial ownership. Japan ruled Taiwan for half a century, and after WWII ceded it back to the Taiwanese. Then the non-commie Chinese Nationalists fled there and took it over. It doesn't belong to the Chinese at all, of either flavor.
The only solution I see is for Taiwan to ally with Japan, and for the Chinese Nationalists to give up rule in favor of native Taiwanese. Japan can then defend Taiwan. (Of course the Nationalists won't do this.)
I'm certain with His Fraudulency, we are certainly almost literally headless.
But what's strange and frightening about the current moment is that every elite all over the world acts like their high on something.
Do you think Xi, surrounded by corrupt sycophants, is actually getting an accurate picture? Or Putin? To say nothing of the fantasists and corrupt politicos running the EU, France and Germany.
If there's any period closest to the present, it's the run-up to 1914.
One hundred ships, huh? Sure it isn't two hundred? Or three hundred?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.