For some discussion, England felt it had to go to the Falkland Islands and get a lot of people killed.
And for what ? There is nothing of interest in the Falkland Islands. National pride.
Such are nation and human relations.
We will never have 1 earth..1 country
Originally Posted by VitaMan
the Falklands was a silly war. defending Taiwan is nothing like the Falklands.
China's big strategy is to pass up the U.S. economically and militarily, and then do whatever the hell they want, aka Nazi Germany circa 1939. The problem is that Germany was no match for the U.S. in industrial capacity once we decided to get off the fence. (That took Pearl Harbor.) But because we have outsourced our manufacturing to China and we run wack trade deficits with China-of course those two facts are intrinsically linked-on the current trajectory, China will pass us up economically, and as a corollary, militarily.
Right now is that interesting point when we can still beat China, but by less and less every year. (They have already passed up our number of ships in our navy.) I say we call their bluff now before it's too late.
What they're doing with all this island building in international waters is establishing new facts on the ground. Who cares about UNCLOS, international law, and the limitation of 12 miles out from established territory being the exclusive economic zone of shoreline powers if China sets up all these forts in the middle of nowhere and claims ownership of Taiwan, all of the South China Sea and all of the East China Sea? (They assert their claims on maps of these territories using something called the 9-dash line.) They harass us when we conduct freedom of navigation ops as their way of saying, this is ours and you are an intruder. We should say, nope, you're in violation of international law and you have 30 days to get all your shit off of these atolls in international waters or we're going to show you why you just made a very bad choice; i.e., call their bluff now before it's too late.
Our doing nothing favors the Chinese strategy. They change the facts on the ground, build up their military until they surpass us, and then they make a freedom of navigation op extraordinarily dangerous, at which time we either walk off with our tale between our legs or risk facing off against a military better than our own. That's a bad spot to be in and should be avoided by acting now.
One more thing. It is imperative for reasons of national security to reshore our manufacturing, which Biden has done a good job on so far. Relying on China is absolute insanity. Plus their products suck, by and large. The Japanese, the Germans, and the U.S. make much better products over all.