People tend to think of an eventual us-china war as a deathmatch scenario where we see troops on the ground clashing around cities and whatnot. This won’t be the case. The only battlefield is the western pacific, to which china is much closer. The US could keep dominance here as long as it had the edge in naval tonnage and tech - now that it doesn’t, it’s objectively not even a contest. IF, IF china decides to strike, all it has to do is send a salvo of ballistic missiles on the main island bases and make use of their ample anti-ship missile inventory to allow their numerically superior navy to pick off american vessels.
You can (and should) check out recent wargames, blue consistently loses and (i shit you not) they sometimes repeat the game with new rules in order to give blue a chance. Some common themes are american planes performing decently in the air but getting destroyed in scores while on the ground, unsustainable logistics, and nearly defenseless aircraft carrier groups. The island chain strategy was formulated with cold war era tech, it’s just not up to par in the modern world where drones and guided missiles can strike anywhere at anytime. Kind of like Russia had to learn the hard way that tank columns get rekt by any idiot with a 80$ drone or a javelin.
Years of US hegemony kind of portrayed a different reality, but the matter of fact is that the closest territory to china the US can logistically and tactically HOPE to defend properly is hawaii.
I don’t know about China, but the US rhetoric on the matter feels like we’re hyping ourselves up for an extermination campaign. That war will be cataclysmic because it’s going to be a matter of survival.
Tbh think that that kind of rethoric has been a thing in every conflict since ever, countries need to justify war by talking to the enemy as if it is an existential threat which will destroy us if we don’t destroy them first.
Countries at war or preparing to be generally talk about how the other nation is a threat for the current international political order, how they are a threat to our “way of life” and “culture”, how it is a “terrorists regime” or whatever… All stuff that implies a need to strike first before too much damage is done, it implies that fighting is a necessity. People are not going to be persuaded to enlist by saying “china is kind of minding his buisness but if the MIC manages to get us into a war with them we might have to defend a couple of island bases thousands of kms away from here”
To that i would add that by now we have it on good faith that people are not going to nuke each other. Just like they didn’t in the cold war, even if at points it felt almost certain that nukes were gonna fly
People tend to think of an eventual us-china war as a deathmatch scenario where we see troops on the ground clashing around cities and whatnot. This won’t be the case. The only battlefield is the western pacific, to which china is much closer. The US could keep dominance here as long as it had the edge in naval tonnage and tech - now that it doesn’t, it’s objectively not even a contest. IF, IF china decides to strike, all it has to do is send a salvo of ballistic missiles on the main island bases and make use of their ample anti-ship missile inventory to allow their numerically superior navy to pick off american vessels.
You can (and should) check out recent wargames, blue consistently loses and (i shit you not) they sometimes repeat the game with new rules in order to give blue a chance. Some common themes are american planes performing decently in the air but getting destroyed in scores while on the ground, unsustainable logistics, and nearly defenseless aircraft carrier groups. The island chain strategy was formulated with cold war era tech, it’s just not up to par in the modern world where drones and guided missiles can strike anywhere at anytime. Kind of like Russia had to learn the hard way that tank columns get rekt by any idiot with a 80$ drone or a javelin.
Years of US hegemony kind of portrayed a different reality, but the matter of fact is that the closest territory to china the US can logistically and tactically HOPE to defend properly is hawaii.
I have to ask if you mean something specific. Some particular incident.
I don’t know about China, but the US rhetoric on the matter feels like we’re hyping ourselves up for an extermination campaign. That war will be cataclysmic because it’s going to be a matter of survival.
Tbh think that that kind of rethoric has been a thing in every conflict since ever, countries need to justify war by talking to the enemy as if it is an existential threat which will destroy us if we don’t destroy them first.
Countries at war or preparing to be generally talk about how the other nation is a threat for the current international political order, how they are a threat to our “way of life” and “culture”, how it is a “terrorists regime” or whatever… All stuff that implies a need to strike first before too much damage is done, it implies that fighting is a necessity. People are not going to be persuaded to enlist by saying “china is kind of minding his buisness but if the MIC manages to get us into a war with them we might have to defend a couple of island bases thousands of kms away from here”
To that i would add that by now we have it on good faith that people are not going to nuke each other. Just like they didn’t in the cold war, even if at points it felt almost certain that nukes were gonna fly