China can wait. The Army’s focus should be Europe.

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Eh, I think that comes down to what you consider "success". The 2nd Gulf War was "successful", other campaigns were not. This wasn't due to capability but more how and what resources were deployed and in what capacity. Vietnam is another example, fighting a ground war against guerrillas; sending American boys over there to die in the jungle because bombing it into oblivion wasn't a palatable strategy.

The middle east could have been turned into a sheet of glass. It wasn't because that's not seen as a proportionate or humane strategy; it's not proper "conflict etiquette" and would be universally condemned. Fighting disparate rebel groups/factions/pockets that are utilizing guerrilla tactics with conventional forces designed to engage other conventional forces isn't going to be pretty. Drone strikes were more effective.

I think we need to be careful in judging a country's capability based solely on their ability to project military might and their dabbling in these foreign campaigns in a limited capacity. In a SHTF scenario with another large power the strategy would be clearly quite different.
Absolutely. Plus, we absolutely decimated Iraq in OIF. The shortcomings came about due to the insurgency and immense amount of foreign terrorists filtering into the country to attack us. We're a great invading force, not so much at peacekeeping and rebuilding....of course, standing armies are not built for that so it makes sense for what happened.
 
Biscuit,

Not going to counter your post- but China has been violating sovereign nations fishing rights for over two decades, and violate an incredible amount. No one, and I mean no one, has been able to stop this.

One of many thousands of examples:
Chinese flotilla includes some of the seafood industry’s worst offenders, with long records of labor abuse, illegal fishing and violations of maritime law. But they’re being drawn to the open ocean around the Americas — where the U.S. has long dominated — after depleting fish stocks closer to home and fueled by an increasingly fierce race between the two superpowers to secure access to the world’s dwindling natural resources.
https://apnews.com/article/taiwan-fish-pacific-ocean-oceans-china-810be144e62b695da2c6c0da65e9f051


This story doesn’t get the coverage it should. Not only South America but the Solomon Islands and down to the south as well. In fact, the Chinese fishing fleets are worldwide. The South Atlantic is another area of concern.
 
Do you really want to attack Russia (a nuclear power) to blockade China (another nuclear power)?
No I think we should go hide in a closet in fear. / sarc

My comment was in response to a war with either - presuming one of them started it - which is the discussion of this thread. Honestly - we should just bring everyone home. Tell China and Russia to kick rocks and wait. They have the worst demographics in the world - terribly low birth rates. There also very insular - no one would want to imigrate there, and they don't want immigrants. 10 - 20 years and there both done. They won't have a large enough population to support themselves let alone fight foreign wars.
 
No I think we should go hide in a closet in fear. / sarc

My comment was in response to a war with either - presuming one of them started it - which is the discussion of this thread. Honestly - we should just bring everyone home. Tell China and Russia to kick rocks and wait. They have the worst demographics in the world - terribly low birth rates. There also very insular - no one would want to imigrate there, and they don't want immigrants. 10 - 20 years and there both done. They won't have a large enough population to support themselves let alone fight foreign wars.
Not sure about Russia, but a nation that has 18.47% of world population "won't have a large enough population to support themselves" seems a bit much.
 
Not sure about Russia, but a nation that has 18.47% of world population "won't have a large enough population to support themselves" seems a bit much.
Seriosly - do your own research. They have no young people. It takes about 2.1 birth per woman to maintain a population. I think there birth rate is 1.3 - and has been for decades. Not to mention they have a huge gender imbalance problem. So its not just that they don't have enough children. They don't have enough young people to make children.

China was able to industrialize so fast because they had a huge glut of young labor. That labor is old now. There is no one to replace it. There not resource rich. There not high tech. There entire system is run by one person making the decisions. What could possibly go wrong?
 
Seriosly - do your own research. They have no young people. It takes about 2.1 birth per woman to maintain a population. I think there birth rate is 1.3 - and has been for decades. Not to mention they have a huge gender imbalance problem. So its not just that they don't have enough children. They don't have enough young people to make children.

China was able to industrialize so fast because they had a huge glut of young labor. That labor is old now. There is no one to replace it. There not resource rich. There not high tech. There entire system is run by one person making the decisions. What could possibly go wrong?
I understand that, my point is, how many people per area of land do you need for your military? Sure they have a shrinking population but they have enough total number.

According to Google it is not a problem:

The population density of China in 2022 was 148.53 people per square kilometer
The population density in the United States is 36 per Km2
 
I understand that, my point is, how many people per area of land do you need for your military? Sure they have a shrinking population but they have enough total number.

According to Google it is not a problem:

The population density of China in 2022 was 148.53 people per square kilometer
The population density in the United States is 36 per Km2
When your population is shrinking that fast you will have so many internal problems that it will be ungovernable. I completely expect them to start some wars - simply for distraction of their own population. Thats what always happens.

We would be smart to go home now and wait.
 
Seriosly - do your own research. They have no young people. It takes about 2.1 birth per woman to maintain a population. I think there birth rate is 1.3 - and has been for decades. Not to mention they have a huge gender imbalance problem. So its not just that they don't have enough children. They don't have enough young people to make children.

China was able to industrialize so fast because they had a huge glut of young labor. That labor is old now. There is no one to replace it. There not resource rich. There not high tech. There entire system is run by one person making the decisions. What could possibly go wrong?
SCM,

I would not trust birth rate, or any other statistic coming from that country. China has been successfully building colonies throughout the world- how does that factor into all the needs for a growing population. When China builds a soccer stadium in that third world or developing nation, it does so with Chinese nationals, and those nationals stay in that third world or developing nation, as a Chinese forward presence.

Like many on this board, I am a huge reader of Sun Tzu. Deception is a key tenant of all militaries, but no military has a longer-term strategic deception plan than the PLA. No other military in the history of the world comes close to the decades long deception plan of the PLA.
 
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No offense taken.

Not really true - those rules were lifted under re-unification for conventional arms. There really only not allowed to have nuke's. German youth must serve 1 year in the military - although there are many outs - volunteer at a hospital instead, for example. Germany is part of NATO.

They weren't allowed to have an army in 1937 either ;)

I think the entire world is going to turn into one big brush fire as the world de-globalizes and the USA - especially the younger population - has less interest in policing the world every year. Anyone without a military will certainly be at a disadvantage.
Ok, 👍
Not all are lifted, they can't have a attack force, submarines ect .Same goes with Italy, Finland.

Yes Nato is different, since it's manly under US intrest.
 
the world’s only superpower similarly faces challenges in both Eurasia and in Asia.
The US is not the "worlds only superpower." I fear the US is about to get a curb stomping, along with Europe, and no longer be a world superpower at all.

The US is 5% of the worlds population at a paltry 340 MILLION people, we import nearly everything, we have a mostly service and entertainment based economy, we have crippling $32 TRILLION debt ($250k per taxpayer) with $182 TRILLION in unfunded liabilities, we are not self sustaining by any metric, we have significant military recruitment and attrition problems, and an aging Navy fleet, 100,000 drug overdose deaths annually, an aged failing infrastructure, broken education systems at the core, an top heavy aging population with SS being bankrupted in 10 years, a dollar that is daily losing relevance in the world and soon to be replaced by a different global currency which will destroy our 1st world standards of living, and a myriad of other problems either too hard to fix or no will to fix. The US needs a RADICAL change in domestic and foreign policies, YESTERDAY. We are unfortunately about to find ourselves irrelevant.

Contrast that with the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, Saudi Arabia) + Iran, Iraq, much of S. Africa, Afghanistan, N. Korea, and some others. These nations comprise about 4+ BILLION people, or >50% of the global population, many of the top oil/energy producers, food producers, several nuclear armed military superpowers... China and Russia have practically no debt. China is the globe factory and makes a significant amount of product, which the 1.3 BILLION people in India want. These nations are aligning against the US right now. These nations do not need the US to survive. China is developing energy and food trade with Russia, along a huge border it shares. Similar deals are happening with these other nations, mostly in the same Asian region.

The problems these nations have, and they each have unique problems, are solved by their 4 BILLION people trading. China and Russia are apparently top heavy on aging population. Both are taking measures to increase their youth. I read that Russia is offering incentives for having kids. I think China is doing something similar. China has food and energy problems, but Russia is rich in both and trading. Russia actually benefited from western embargos, moved the Ruble to a gold backed standard, and now trades with oil in Asia. Russia is trading arms with Iran and N. Korea, theories are that Russia is providing nuclear tech to these nations too.

If this is news to you, I'm sorry to report it. But it is factual.
 
Lots of hype about China's navy and the build-up. While they are building naval vessels at a heightened pace I don't see any direct competition for the US Navy
I've seen comparisons of military powers. Overall, both China and Russia are peers. They are better in some areas, and the US is better in others. But given our 0-5 military record against non-superpowers since 1950, I shutter to think what a war with a superpower who has a Navy, AirPower, satellites, nuclear weapons, Cyber power, economic power, energy and arms production capabilites, and 100 million men to fight, might look like.

Our Navy is aging and unable to make recruitment. So "ships" might or might not matter and in the end it may, or may not be, relevant. I will note that the US was unable to extinguish a paper fire on a metal ship in harbor and the USS Bonhomme Richard was destroyed at a cost of $1.2 billion. So I really question our capabilities of doing much of anything when we cannot extinguish a fire on a metal vessel in harbor. We are also fundamentally going in the wrong philosophical direction in the armed services. Across the board all branches are struggling unable to make recruitment, have a broken exhausted military with bad priorities and decision making, aged equipment, and very poor demographical priorities. So that's my baseline for the level of competency in our military. I say that as a patriotic Army combat vet honorably discharged. It's sad, really.

Navy's are nice, but make juicy military targets and in 2023 China (and Russia) don't particularly need a Navy to cripple the US. China could call its debts which we are unable to pay, and possibly collapse our economy. China has been infiltrating the US and destroying our infrastructure with cyber warfare (e.g. TikTok) and lethal street drugs like lab made fenty for many years, buying US representatives, infiltrating our colleges and stealing technology for decades. There are probably a million Chinese in the US who could be activated to attack our infrastructure for which we are literally unable to defend against. Russia can take their own moves, as they are a very sophisticated superpower with cyber warfare capabilities, and the most powerful and advanced nuclear power in the world with apparently weaponry far more advanced than the US.

Modern warfare won't be two Battleships lining up and trading blows, or aerial dog fights enmass. It will be some nerd pushing buttons and shutting down 1/3 of a nations energy grid. Or 6 Navy ships in the open being eliminated by a tactical nuke (much like the foolishness of rushing emplaced machine guns across open fields in WWI).
 
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I think this is the most important snippet for the Xi-Putin meeting the other day (English translation):


Yes, and it's going to get worse. Everyone reading should brace for impact and position themselves as economically defensively as possible IMHO.

The reason for our 1st world wealth is oil and petro dollars. 50% of the world, including the largest oil, energy, and food producers, are aligning against the US.
 
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