Oof that base they hit wasnt empty.... a couple dozen service members got hurt from it mainly concussions. Those at the base just had enough time to get to bunkers hence no injuries but it has come out it wasn't an empty base.
With the Pacific it is my understanding that at the moment China and North Korea both are tied up with Russia and providing arms there. So I think there is a breathing room for once. China did make news with the "largest navy" but that is because they count each and every one of their boats which would mean the US would need to count river boats lol
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I recall that officially there were no injuries and backchannel coordination was implied, also keep in mind that the comms were from Milley and Esper. Milley has the fake tiff with Trump and Esper was fired after the election (same time the CIA was subordinated to military intelligence). Take nothing literally.
Wdym China/NK tied up with Russia? Ukraine artillery? The pacific will have little to nothing to do with artillery, the Ukraine stuff seems to be mostly a money laundering operation to fund new stuff for the pacific by destroying stock piles of legacy equipment.
Navy stats only matter far as how many missiles we can deliver over there, China doesn't need a big expeditionary navy since they have proximity. That battle will be won with drones, missiles, aircraft and satellites. Navy vs. Navy I don't think will matter until it comes down to containing Chinese submarines should they break the island chain.
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Oh, I only know about the base because it was discussed on the hill over the time I have been working here. Yeah, there were backchannels through Switzerland if I remember correctly and officially yes the base was empty but it turned out that was not the case.
With China/NK they are tied up with arms to Russia beyond the artillery... that was mostly NK and that stuff went up in flames as well as has an issue with misfiring and blowing up the turrets. Russia is trying to get all the EW equipment it can and according to recent reports are providing a ton of chips to Russia for the drones and "new" Russian missiles. China also has been the country that has been absorbing the Russian oil but their economy is sputtering and we have seen more Chinese banks turn away Russia because they don't want to get caught up in sanctions. The money just isn't enough to justify the risk.
One thing to note I have seen more chatter about is NK possibly sending "workers" to Russia since they need more bodies. They cant really mobilize without causing issues with production and the general economy as they are running out of prisoners and minority forces to send as cannon fodder. If NK does do this it would allow SK to turn more of its focus towards China to keep them in check which China would hate.
Since China has lost another sub to the bottom of a river I am not sure how great they are at making them. Last year they had that state of the art one get caught in the anti torpedo nets and sink and now they sunk a nuclear sub as soon as they launched it....
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USA cannot declare war on China because most US major corporations would collapse under the Trading with the Enemy Act. US economy is dependent on Chinese manufacturing. China has won the trade war and is now building submarines with Russian assistance. Half of the shipping globally is built by China. USA builds less than 2%.
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lol China isnt building anything near what the US builds. It immediately sunk a brand new nuclear sub when trying to launch it. Its comparing apples and oranges.
Also you seem to think that if the US declared war these companies would transition into producing arms and other military needs. Look at WWII regular manufacturing goes away and war manufacturing takes off. Its why Russia for example cannot end the Ukrainian war they destroyed their economy except for war goods.
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How many major US corporations do not rely upon Chinese supply chains? You do not seem to understand the Trading with the Enemy Act.
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I am not sure you understand the American Political process. If Congress declared war on a country something that hasn't happened since WWII and has only happened in 1812, the Mexican-American War, the Spanish War, and WWI I am not sure anyone is going to care about consumables. The DAA kicks in and America's economy overnight changes. We saw a little peak of it during COVID with something stuff the US never made I mean Tesla was making ventilators for gods sake. Your TV's Crayons and dolls wouldn't matter.
Existing supply chains go right out the window because we arent making the same things.
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America's economy overnight changes.
What if that's the intention?
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Supply chains take time to change. Currently USA is hostage to Chinese supply chains. China has won the trade war because China produces almost everything from crayons to EV batteries more efficiently at a lower cost. Chinese EV manufacturers can source batteries at half the cost Tesla can. Tesla is only viable due to taxpayer funded subsidies. ie western manufacturing is not competitive and only continues as a burden and driver of increasing fiscal deficits. Supply chains are hugely important in war and you cannot magic up many of them as you seem to imagine. When USA finally entered WW2 it held most of the worlds gold reserves- today the USA is technically insolvent and only sustained via its global fiat monetary hegemony. WW3 has already begun and it clearly will not be comparable to WW2 as it is much more on multiple levels of technology and asymmetric warfare as well as control of protocols for example SWIFT bank payments which China can now provide an alternative for with its CBDC DCEP which Iran and Russia now use to receive payment for oil and gas exports and to pay for imports of multiple manufactured goods from PRC. China intends to reverse engineer the legacy western imperialist banking system via Hong Kong and DCEP...it has already begun.
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Eh, no way to be sure either way but that sounds like a lot of atlantic council think-tank cope that's always downtalking geopolitical rivals and will say anything to pretend there's reason to launder more money in Ukraine. There's been enough fake Ukraine is winning coverage that I assume Russia/China faltering news is equally fake.
But, these same think tanks would also tell you that because they're faltering so badly, they're cornered and will make it a 3 front standoff out of desperation.
minority forces to send as cannon fodder
lol, straight out of the Atlantic...
It would make sense for NK to send bodies to Russia for any number of reasons, but that doesn't put SK back on the board, Seoul is a nuclear hostage.
In the last few years one of our subs "crashed into a mountain" and had to get limped home and then we found that the materials tests in their construction were being forged. This was around the same time we splashed an F-35 off a carrier.
I wouldn't compare our abilities to produce things because we won't look good.
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