If it comes to a shooting war ...

[razors edge]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/HD20Ad03.html

One could call this article a worst-case scenario for the new American century. Why worst case? Because of the hard lessons from history. The Romans did not consider the worst-case scenario when Hannibal crossed the Alps with his elephants and routed them; or when Hannibal encircled and annihilated the numerically superior Roman army at the Battle of Cannae

snip

Scenario One: America launches 'preventive war' vs China
Our first objective is to prevent the re-emergence of a new rival. This is a dominant consideration underlying the new regional defense strategy and requires that we endeavor to prevent any hostile power from dominating a region whose resources would, under consolidated control, be sufficient to generate global power. These regions include Western Europe, East Asia, the territory of the former Soviet Union and Southwest Asia.
–Paul Wolfowitz, former US deputy secretary of defense and currently president of the World Bank

snip

No US defense vs supersonic cruise missiles
The US and UK aircraft carrier battle groups do not have any known defense against the new supersonic missiles of their adversaries. The Phalanx and Aegis ship defense systems may be effective against subsonic cruise missiles like the Exocets or Tomahawks, or exo-atmospheric ballistic missiles, but they are inadequate against the sea-skimming and supersonic Granits, Moskits and Yakhonts or similar types (Shipwreck, Sunburn and Onyx - North Atlantic Treaty Organization codenames) of modern anti-ship missiles in China's inventory.

snip

Victor N Corpus is a retired brigadier general. He has a master's degree in public administration from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. His major assignment while serving in the armed forces of the Philippines was as chief of the intelligence service.


long but interesting.

[hogwyld]

1. Well, we might as well just give up and not even try...

Welcome to planet china!

[razors edge]

3. How's your Mandarin?

[Pavulon]

2. FYI

The sunburn was originally a test drone co developed between us and russian defense companies. We used it as a target drone...

This per Jane's and other sources.

Pre emptive war is a bad idea period.

[razors edge]

4. If you took my post as supportive of war

then it was from the way I copied the paragraphs I found important for first glance.

War to me is a waste of money as it was designed to be. I find the article interesting in that it plays out some scenarios not frequently contemplated or discussed.

[hogwyld]

5. The end of the article is the heart of the matter

If we eliminated the defense budget of 300+billion, and used that money for social good, we would have no terrorists to worry about since there would be global justice. But unfortunately, neither Dem or Puke have the balls to call for this.

[BurningDog]

6. Unrealistic War Scenario

Intersting read, but its just alot of wishful thinking.

1st, a war between two nuclear countries would never reach an invasion of the mainland of either country. Assuming a 100% conventional war, this is still not a realistic scenario.

Parasitic satallites do not exist. ( http://www.space.com/adastra/china_engagement_0505.html ) That alone undermines the accuracy of the military portion of the article.

The article does make good points on the US trade deficit with China, Chinese ownership of US Treasury Bonds, and the infiltration of persons unloyal to the US across unguarded borders at a time of war.