I'm saying if I were Taiwan, I would threaten it. If they value their freedom, then they need to let China know that if they want to take it, it may prove costlier than they thought.
If Trump has some blame in this matter, then to hell with him, too. I'm not some partisan hack or Trump fanboi who thinks the man was perfect in every way, especially in light of how much of his term I spent in a hospital with my brain not working. That said, Biden had the power and authority to undo any agreement Trump may have entered into with the Taliban, after all on his very first day as POTUS, without even taking 5 minutes to consider if he was doing the right thing, he cancelled dozens (hundreds?) of Trump's Orders (including literally stopping construction on the border wall, when the materials were, and still are, sitting there ready to go, costing us who knows how much money to just let it sit there and rust and deteriorate), so he damn well could have (and SHOULD HAVE!!!) cancelled out any surrender agreements. Then, he ordered the most powerful military in the world to surrender to a ragtag bunch of islamic extremist hillbillys who are evil incarnate to take over the entire country in mere days, when we had them contained with a force of only 2,500 military personnel, who had recorded 0 casualties in 2 years, and whose presence for a longer term (indefinite if necessary) could have kept them contained. We also had (and still have) it within our powers to shift it from containment to an outright and decisive victory, leaving 99% of them dead, but the American people sadly don't have the stomach for a real war. But no, that was not to be, we surrendered (under direct orders from Biden), and pulled out like a teenager getting caught having sex by their parents, killing 13 US Marines in the process, and left the entire country to suffer from the madness, violence, and torture that the talibin loves so much, undoing decades of progress and sacrifice. To hell with both of them, but especially the surrender monkey that is currently in the White House, and had the power to do the right thing, but refused to because of his political agenda.
Wake up and remove yourself from the CCP's wet dreams. Not only is Tiawan no longer a part of China, but they have also not been so for many decades, and we have a treaty with them to use our military might to protect them from Chinese aggression. How that is accomplished I'll leave to the guys with stars on their soldiers, and whatever top-secret plans we already have in some safe in the Pentagon to decide. If that includes taking out dams, I'm fine with that, and will sleep soundly knowing they won't go nuclear, because they know to do so is suicide. For them to press that button would be the equivalent to a death row inmate pushing the button that starts the lethal injection cocktail on for themselves. They don't care about Tiawan enough to cause their own deaths, and widespread destruction on the rest of their country.
That article is not as dismal as you make it sound. It does note deficiencies in Taiwan's defenses, but it also says that Taiwan is striving to correct those deficiencies. Keep in mind that the F-35 is not much of an air-superiority fighter. Its strength lies in ground attack. What Taiwan really needs for air defense is something that is good in dogfights. Something like the Saab Gripen or the Dassault Rafale. That said, Taiwan would love to have F-35s. The US is so-far refusing to let Taiwan have F-35 fighters because China will blow a gasket if we do so.
The US will not be deterred from using tactical nukes if conventional force fails to dislodge a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. That delivery method could have worked during the Cold War too. The superpowers didn't use it because missiles are so much better. If Iran launches a nuclear attack, no matter what the delivery method, American stealth bombers carrying strategic nuclear weapons will be visiting Iran.
Regarding #4, the Dutch are already refusing to sell extreme ultraviolet lithography equipment to China (who has already tried to buy it). China is already in possession of 193 nanometer immersion lithography equipment though, so they will probably be able to make 14 nanometer chips using self aligned double patterning. Intel had to use self aligned quadruple patterning to make 10 nanometer chips with 193 nanometer immersion lithography equipment, and that has proved to be an unmitigated disaster for them. So China probably won't be making 10 nanometer chips unless they are willing to accept very low production yields.
US stealth bombers are able to pummel Iran with impunity if we go to war with them. No propaganda. Israel has 5000-pound bunker busters, and has the ability to drop them on Iranian pseudo-bunkers. Again, Israel has 5000-pound bunker busters. Israel can make a massive dent in Iran's pseudo-bunkers. Also, much of Iran's illegal nuclear program is above ground, and Israel will not even need bunker busters to wipe that part of it out. It sounds like endless perpetual bombardment might be in Iran's future.
Yes. Although I don't see how we would lose tens of thousands of Americans unless our leaders are foolish in their war strategy, or unless it escalates to nuclear war. No they don't. They expect our help, but they plan to fight for themselves too.
You can make assertions that don't correspond to how anyone with genuine responsibility and knowledge would support to your hearts delight. It won't change anything. I have cited the assessment of the commander of CENTCOM, can cite you assessments by numerous other experts who know better, cite you the results of several war games simulating war with Iran which have gone terribly for the US etc, none of it is going to prevent you from repeating what you wish to believe. In the meantime, last time when the situation between Iran and the US looked almost certain to head to war, it was the US that blinked despite more than a dozen ballistic missiles openly and directly hitting a major US base in Iraq. At the time, and to the chagrin of Trump, the Israelis quickly chickened out with Netanyahu immediately going on the airways saying Israel had nothing to do with the assassination of General Soleimani. They waited almost 2 years, when the Iranian threat of retaliation had subsided, to admit their involvement.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/netan...ays-israel-shouldnt-be-dragged-into-it-report Netanyahu Distances From Soleimani Slaying, Says Israel Shouldn’t Be ‘Dragged’ Into It: Report https://www.axios.com/trump-soleima...ael-8f1abba2-5c05-4909-adee-ef872e9becb4.html Trump felt used on Soleimani strike: "Israel did not do the right thing"
That was ex post facto justification to cover up the fact the US blinked. Otherwise, America's threat to Iran before the strike was as follows: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/trump-threatens-iran-attacks-52-sites-n1110511 The US had made similar threats before the $200 million+ Global Hawk was shot down, and had previously even extended the bellicose threats to allied interrsts as well (before the Aramco attack and also before Iran seized a British tanker etc) Donald Trump threatens 'overwhelming force' against Iran if it attacks 'anything American' https://www.newsweek.com/us-sends-w...-states-interests-or-those-our-allies-1415744 America Warns Iran: 'Any Attack on U.S. Interests or on Those of Our Allies Will Be Met With Unrelenting Force'
Global Hawks don't cost 200 million dollars or anything more. Who cares what threats Donald Trump made? Why do you and your ilk seem to take him so seriously?
I know Trump is a clown, but he was POTUS and US commander-in-chief. Besides, it wasn't just Trump making such threat.. Flynn, Bolton and Pompeo have issued similar warnings and threats before past incidents which saw the US blink.. The Drone Iran Shot Down Was a $220M Surveillance Monster https://economictimes.indiatimes.co...-war-almost/articleshow/69936575.cms?from=mdr RQ-4A Global Hawk: The $220 mn drone that waged a war, almost
Global Hawks cost 131 million dollars. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Grumman_RQ-4_Global_Hawk
Not that it matters to any point at issue whether it cost 131 million dollars or $200 million+, but the one Iran shut down was widely reported to cost $220 million.
I have no desire to change reality. If Iran crosses the line and gets themselves bombed, by either Israel or the US, I'm just going to kick back and watch the carnage on CNN. If you have experts who contradict reality, you might want to look into their credentials a bit more. They probably are not as expert as you think. I do prefer reality over nonsense. The US didn't blink. The US and Iran were not heading to war to begin with. Israel was not involved. There was nothing wrong with them saying that they were not involved.
The CCP tends to target the people of China. “Who was the biggest mass murderer in the history of the world? Most people probably assume that the answer is Adolf Hitler, architect of the Holocaust. Others might guess Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, who may indeed have managed to kill even more innocent people than Hitler did, many of them as part of a terror famine that likely took more lives than the Holocaust. But both Hitler and Stalin were outdone by Mao Zedong. From 1958 to 1962, his Great Leap Forward policy led to the deaths of up to 45 million people – easily making it the biggest episode of mass murder ever recorded.” THE WASHINGTON POST, Remembering the biggest mass murder in the history of the world, By Ilya Somin, August 3, 2016. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ving-historys-greatest-mass-murderer-his-due/
Ty for the very good analysis. I certainly hope that Xi is not tempted by the USG's current state of relative weakness.
I was referring to WHO specifically in Xi's China You are getting too far afield from my original post about Xi being an ethnic Han nationalist.
Bingo. That's the equipment China will desperately need if Taiwan blows up their chip factories. If Taiwan has to go "broken nest" and the free world refuses to supply China replacement equipment, the estimate I saw was that China's chip supply wouldn't recover for the remainder of Xi's life.
I have no objections. I'm a bit bored with politics so probably won't join in, but go ahead and quote me.
"Taiwan in Trouble!" is the subject. A CCP attack of Taiwan will result in the slaughter of Han Chinese. IMO, it would be better if that did not happen.
