It's astonishing to hear the utter lack of sound reasoning on offer by the Taiwan hawks. Here's the truth. We gave up on Taiwan 43 years ago. We ended our mutual defense treaty and derecognized them diplomatically, in favor of diplomatic relations with China. We then spent the next 40 years building China into an unprecedented monolith that is now set to establish itself as THE global hegemon. Militarily, it's our only real rival on the planet and they field very competitive weapons systems in many categories that we simply have never faced before.
I've seen DCS simulations of battles w China over Taiwan and protecting Okinawa or Guam and the truth is that while we may beat them initially, that will require huge losses. Think dozens of naval warships, hundreds of aircraft and thousand and thousand of military personnel. And that's in the firs week. Fyi, there is a non-zero chance that it will be much worse for us if Chine decides to use one of it's 'assassin's mace' weapons against us like an EMP or killer satellites that take out ours. Who knows?
But the idea that 40 years after letting Taiwan go, now we should fight? Eff that. That's insane. There is a reason we don't have a treaty to defend Taiwan. Funnily, if you read the rationale offered for doing so above, much of it comes down to the massive egos of our Western elites who do not want to face the very real limitations on their power. They can't admit we can't win a war over Taiwan, which of course we can't over any sustained period of time. Like we could maybe get them to a standoff initially but we would eventually be pushed back. It's their backyard - it's 8000 miles away from us. Just think about the logistics of fighting the largest nation and military on earth?
It's astonishing to hear the utter lack of sound reasoning on offer by the Taiwan hawks. Here's the truth. We gave up on Taiwan 43 years ago. We ended our mutual defense treaty and derecognized them diplomatically, in favor of diplomatic relations with China. We then spent the next 40 years building China into an unprecedented monolith that is now set to establish itself as THE global hegemon. Militarily, it's our only real rival on the planet and they field very competitive weapons systems in many categories that we simply have never faced before.
I've seen DCS simulations of battles w China over Taiwan and protecting Okinawa or Guam and the truth is that while we may beat them initially, that will require huge losses. Think dozens of naval warships, hundreds of aircraft and thousand and thousand of military personnel. And that's in the firs week. Fyi, there is a non-zero chance that it will be much worse for us if Chine decides to use one of it's 'assassin's mace' weapons against us like an EMP or killer satellites that take out ours. Who knows?
But the idea that 40 years after letting Taiwan go, now we should fight? Eff that. That's insane. There is a reason we don't have a treaty to defend Taiwan. Funnily, if you read the rationale offered for doing so above, much of it comes down to the massive egos of our Western elites who do not want to face the very real limitations on their power. They can't admit we can't win a war over Taiwan, which of course we can't over any sustained period of time. Like we could maybe get them to a standoff initially but we would eventually be pushed back. It's their backyard - it's 8000 miles away from us. Just think about the logistics of fighting the largest nation and military on earth?
Good points to ponder.
Isn't it amazing what a lack of leadership in Washington, DC has done to the fine balance of power world wide.