https://archive.is/9oTJO
Early one morning this month, 864 Army paratroopers bundled into C-17 transport planes at a base in Alaska and took off for a Great Power War exercise between three volcanic mountains on Hawaii’s Big Island.
Only 492 made it. Some of the C-17s had trouble with their doors, while others were forced to land early. A few of the parachutists who did make it sprained ankles or suffered head trauma. And one — a 19-year-old private — began to fall quickly when his chute did not open.
Across the field, shouts of “pull your reserve” could be heard before the young private hit the ground and medics ran to treat him. The horrifying scene and its aftermath encapsulate every jumper’s worst nightmare.
lmao there's no way they're ever winning a war
“My sense is that a successful Chinese invasion of Taiwan would send massive ripples throughout the region,” said Seth Jones, a senior vice president with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “China would likely emerge as the dominant military power in the region, not the United States, and it would trigger a range of second- and third-order effects.”
For instance, America’s Pacific allies could lose faith in U.S. deterrence and try to make security deals with China. Japan and South Korea — both treaty allies of the United States — could join the nuclear club as a way to defend themselves against China.
“Is it quite the fall of the Roman Empire?” Mr. Jones said. “I don’t know, but that’s the right kind of question to ask.”
And one — a 19-year-old private — began to fall quickly when his chute did not open.
Yeah... That's just regular falling. That's what happens when you step outside a flying machine.
I know this is pedantic, but I dunno that sentence just tickled my funny bone. I'm imagining some sergeant explaining the incident with tactical words "Well uh the private - that is to say the individual soldier who was at the rank of PV1 - initiated a maneuver without previously ascertaining wether he was correctly equipped for the task. Upon succesfully completing several stages of the maneuver he began to experience a negative result of his lacking equipment - That is to say he began to increase his downwards velocity at an accelerating pace."
There's a metaphor here for what the US is going through. I would almost argue the writer intends it too.
The plan for the war makes less sense every year.
The US navy doesn't have the capacity to close the Taiwan straight anymore, so the idea now is to blockade the Singapore straight, 3000 kilometers to the south, and cut off Chinese shipping from the world markets... that is to say, the nation that doesn't produce anything but excel spreadsheets thinks it can win a war by blocking the source of all the cheap goods that keep their consumer economies running.
Indeed, there was a window when US navy had a clear superiority over China. However, that window closed a long time ago. The worry is that the US is going to go nuclear. There was even a policy paper, from RAND I think, that openly advocated using nuclear weapons against China.
There was even a policy paper, from RAND I think, that openly advocated using nuclear weapons against China.
Frankly, this should be known globally, and every one of the ghouls involved in writing this policy should be lynch mobbed, full stop. As a species we have an obligation to neutralize our own who behave in ways that threaten all known life.
RAND
lol
I remember seeing one of their papers about the Russian 'firehose of disinformation' strategy
they literally just described RAND
Westoids love to make fun of Russia for supposedly expecting a 3-day war in Ukraine, but like, that's precisely the premise here. We saw what happened when China closed a few ports for Covid. How long do they expect a war over the South China Sea to last?!
Also the same people making fun of Russia for expecting a 3 day war have been insisting the Russian army is 3 days from collapse for a little over 2 years at this point.
the idea now is to blockade the Singapore straight, 3000 kilometers to the south, and cut off Chinese shipping from the world markets...
It almost seems more practically to close the Suez and Panama canals to Chinese trade. I can't imagine the folks that run Singapore would be thrilled at a nose dive in shipping traffic. Would they even play ball?
that is to say, the nation that doesn't produce anything but excel spreadsheets thinks it can win a war
The US manufacturing capacity that continues to exist is entirely bound up in military construction and engineering. It's the one thing we still actually do and do reasonably well.
Does the US stand to benefit from a protracted naval conflict with another superpower? Of course not. But I have no doubt they could do at least as much damage as Russia has endured in its conflict with Ukraine.
I can't imagine the folks that run Singapore would be thrilled at a nose dive in shipping traffic. Would they even play ball?
I mean at that point what're they gonna do, the Singaporean navy has 6 subs and 32 surface ships. Similar but slightly larger for Malaysia. FWIW ships can just bypass the entire Malacca Strait, and it's not nearly as far as being forced to go around the cape.
It's the one thing we still actually do and do reasonably well.
Lol not ships or tanks
Good, if the US tries to invade China, I hope they respond in kind and bring the US under foreign occupation and denazification
What a fucking opener lol
Early one morning this month, 864 Army paratroopers bundled into C-17 transport planes at a base in Alaska and took off for a Great Power War exercise between three volcanic mountains on Hawaii’s Big Island.
Only 492 made it. Some of the C-17s had trouble with their doors, while others were forced to land early. A few of the parachutists who did make it sprained ankles or suffered head trauma. And one — a 19-year-old private — began to fall quickly when his chute did not open."But yeah we're gonna be ready for war in like three years"
It's pretty striking that the rhetoric is still about US wunderwaffen, which has literally never worked. If the US was equal to China it would still lose in Taiwan, and it looks they're a long way from equal, especially after sending so much to Ukraine and Israel.
You see, they sent all the old junk to Ukraine, the US military has the latest thunder-fuck 9r-x weapon that costs $10m and a small village in the global south to produce each. Meanwhile, the average person in a country being bombed to shit figures out how to take out a tank with a Little Tikes Cozy Coupe car bomb that cost them $20 in household chemicals and duct tape.
the average person in a country being bombed to shit figures out how to take out a tank with a Little Tikes Cozy Coupe car bomb that cost them $20 in household chemicals and duct tape.
Often times it's because they're being bombed. The unexploded bombs make for excellent buried IEDs.
and they will have a dozen of the brand new wonder weapons ready in three years, they might even have one factory to produce them ready in three years if they even start production by then. The US can't even keep up production with the demand in Ukraine, not to mention Palestine and the greater regional war that is forming there. We just watched the last two years of US depleting all reserves and then realizing they can't even replace them, the only option is to go nuclear or go back to the drawing board. Oh and of course the new wonder weapons will be rushed and untested so half will fail before use and another third will turn out to be ineffective in the environment or situation they are used in.
Hard disagree on the nuclear part - going nuclear stops the gravy train for arms contractors because of guaranteed escalation. They'll just do what the bazingafied Pentagon has done for the past 40 years, outsource it more. If the quality continues to deteriorate (it will), the Fed will eventually seize all the pop up drop ship bomb companies under emergency powers. Former jet ski dealership owners who built bomb factories as "a rare investment opportunity" will become radicalized against the military industrial complex.
But no matter who wins in November, the United States will continue to prepare for war with China.
I think that sums up this election perfectly.
Honestly if we start a war with China they could just cut off trade with us and give an ultimatum to anyone who does trade with us and they wouldn't need to fire a shot to win
Remembering the time covid started amidst all those dumb tarrifs and all the ammo stores were nearly barren for months because whoops, turns out every primer on every brand of bullet sold in the US comes from China.
Yup the temu home page being replaced with a propoganda poster saying "kill your overlords" would probablly lead to actual American military casualties.
That's really the elephant in the room. The US is deeply reliant on manufacturing in China, and it does not have any viable alternatives. The economy would collapse overnight if a war with China started.
Isn't there something about china importing a bunch of foodstuffs and raw materials from the US though?
Beijing has made clear that it will seek to expand its power in Asia, from militarizing uninhabited rocks in the Pacific to claiming sovereignty over international waters.
Does anyone have that map of the US basically claiming the entirety of the Pacific?
It's also not true at all. All they are doing is expanding their defensive capabilities in their own territory.
Pure projection by the fascist West.
Why would a war with China star?
China has been a fucking angel when it comes to not increasing tensions and letting america act like they're hot shit in charge of everything because they know they're running laps around us economically and with the green energy boom they're leaving us in the dust.
America can't honestly think they can go toe to toe with a military peer halfway around the world, we haven't won a war against impoverished farmers in decades.
Do people think it looks like an actual attempt to invade China (lmao) or just like a huge naval battle around Taiwan?
Also America is too out of shape and broken from a complete lack of Healthcare leading to preventable diseases becoming lifelong ailments to even attempt a draft, that's before you consider half of the country would riot if the party they dont support tried to institute a draft.
I think it's just actually the same thing the nazis suffered under: Triumph of the will. Except it's coated in burgerland language "freedoms" and so on. Probably the same brainworms as the ones they had in the bay of pigs: "The people will rise up against the evil gommunist overlords!" + "We're just better"
Yeah they're hoping for an invasion of Taiwan, they talk a fair bit in the article about the difficulty of naval invasions. Which is like, fair enough, but a hundred miles gap puts Taiwan and any US troops there in range of thousands of Chinese missiles. One imagines that an invasion gets a lot easier after sinking a US carrier group or two.
That said, I don't see China going for it. Both countries are pretty okay with the status quo or maybe reunification in the coming decades, but very few people want war.
I expect that reunification will only become more likely when the US appropriates the TSMC foundry in Arizona and leaves Taipei to rot.
I can see a reverse cuban missile crisis playing out, but the US being the US just launching the nukes at some point
With modern missile tech is there even any reason to put nuclear missiles in Taiwan? I was under the impression that ICBMs have basically made that pointless. Oh no, the targets will live for 5-10 whole minutes longer during the travel time.
It kinda matters in that there's a chain of command before you can retaliate. Someone has to see the missiles, make sure it's not a malfunction, tell their boss who tells their boss, etc. Ideally your missiles land before the counterattack starts. This is why deploying missiles in eastern Europe was such a big deal to Putin as well.
Pshaw, they can get that money by investing into hypersonic missiles to get that number down from 5-10 minutes to 2-3.
I don't think the US has capacity to make hypersonic missiles though, so that would require the arms manufacturers to actually do some research and improve manufaturing
Hmm, you're right, and that wouldn't be very profitable. Perhaps they should see if they can buy the technology from China!
If you ask some dip shit general with a BS in psychology, he 'knows how the enemy thinks' and has determined that war is inevitable.
Kind of like an arsonist with a lit match in one hand and a recently emptied can of gas in the other hand saying a fire is gonna break out any day now.
The USA is a firefighter that very obviously was also an arsonist.
It's also crazy how closely this aligns with the actual realities of fire fighters in this country.
The only local cases of arson I'm aware of were all started by firefighters looking to be heros and they were all caught when an investigator pointed out it's weird that a volunteer firefighter just happened to stumble across a fire in a remote building with no electric connection 3 minutes after the fire started.
and with the green energy boom they're leaving us in the dust.
Im all for it but how is that an economic or strategic advantage?
They realized that the entire world was going to switch to green energy and started manufacturing solar panels and turbines.
They saw the next gold rush and set up a shovel factory. They have an incredible manufacturing advantage on breakout technologies that are gonna be the future equivalent of controlling the oil derrick while also having the benefit of undeniable moral high ground while improving air and water quality for their citizens.
Meanwhile in America one of the two major parties is at "solar power isn't real because the sun goes down and w8ndnpower doesn't work because sometimes the wind isn't blowing and also it gives you cancer."
It would be like if around 1900 one country was ramping up assembly lines for automobiles and another countrys national policy was that cars are the devil and they were instead focusing completely on doubling down on increasing production of horse feed.
Meanwhile in America one of the two major parties is at “solar power isn’t real because the sun goes down and w8ndnpower doesn’t work because sometimes the wind isn’t blowing and also it gives you cancer.”
And the second one is bragging about doing more fracking and more drilling than the above.
Beijing has made clear that it will seek to expand its power in Asia, from militarizing uninhabited rocks in the Pacific
This is always funny to me. Like...maybe it should just be their rock? It's in their sea and no one appears to be using it. What? Does the US need it to build a military hospital on in case another one of our Navy SEALs drowns (lol) and needs treatment?
Country With 750 Bases Overseas Is Concerned About Another Country Militarizing A Rock
450k us troops across the entire Pacific. That is less than Russia has operating in ukraine right now. If the US wants to go to war with China they're going to need to restart the draft to get the 1m plus soldiers needed
It'd be a very funny conversation if they tried to recall me long after my contract expired - "I will frag my officers and defect to China".
Generals in the US back in 2002 and 2003 were advising we'd need at least 4 million troops to occupy Iraq. We had 4 million troops worldwide including support personnel when we invaded. Lo and behold, the thing they were warning about happened. We wiped out Iraq's military in just a few weeks, but then had no way of dealing with the insurgency or helping civilians get their lives back to normal. Entire cities without water or power for months, making them prime real estate for insurgents to occupy.
Make no mistake, the US will do the same stupid shit we did 20 years ago. The same mistakes made during Desert Storm and Vietnam were never learned from going into 9/11 and the 2003 invasion. Pure adventurism on behalf of the US government.
Based on what I understand about the Iraq war, the failure to rebuild the country was a feature, not a bug.
The only way it will work is if they have mastered some sort of remote powered warriors so everyone can stay in a safe place and pilot death from miles away. But let's be real, China would be the one to figure that out first
remote powered warriors
at that point your opponent probably should start blowing up communications satellites
The desecration of holy land to the Hawaiian people for these exercises is just the cherry on top.
Also a 19 year old kid is probably paralyzed for life after, most likely, being propagandized in his high school and having money for an education dangled in front of him, which otherwise our farce of a country would deny him.
Zero introspection in the article of why the USA needs to kill Chinese people, where the money would come from, where it could otherwise go, how similar the jungle green camo looks to Vietnam war photos. Basically just a trailer for a movie we'll be watching in 5 years: USA Kills Again.
Death to America, burn that country to the ground and salt the earth
And just so we're clear - the us and it's groupies are the only people who want this, it's completely one sided, and it's literally because china is better at economies than us?
Nono, you don't understand, China wants to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027! Chi a is escalating, not the US! We're just smol bean freedom fighters!
We must fight freedom. A free world is literally violence against The American Way
Better at economies? But I thought gommulism was no iPhone and no food?
Just you wait, wornldews has told me that the wholesome chungus Azov battalion troops will reach and conquer Moscow any day now
The reaction from people who've only been guzzling mainstream western propaganda for the past two years is going to be absolutely wild when it's no longer possible to pretend Ukraine is winning.
I think it'll be very underwhelming honestly. If I've learned anything about libs in the last 6 months, it's how little they actually care about anything, and will gladly do a complete 180 of their attitude and act like they always held that position.
I mean it's entirely possible they just forget about Ukraine and move on to cheering for a war with Iran. However, I do think that Russia winning and dictating terms will be an affront to their core identity which is fundamentally rooted in chauvinism. All of a sudden they're going to have to grapple with the fact that it is the west that's being dictated terms by force as opposed to the other way around.
That's assuming the press actually tells them that though. I think it'll probably just end up with the headlines using words like "Belligerent" or "Unreasonable" to describe Russia's terms and the average lib will just assume the "moral victory" stance they always do when they lose.
They're already abandoning Ukraine so they can send more weapons to Isreal for the purpose of enacting a genocide. Zeleskyy has been out panhandling, making sure people don't forget he's still alive.
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