The lack of a U.S. carrier in the Pacific may be short-lived if the Navy deploys another in the next couple of months. But it shows how the open-ended operations with Iran are running some American sailors ragged, analysts say, while the Trump administration further retreats from the Asia-Pacific region and focuses on the Western Hemisphere.
“The administration says that the Pacific is supposed to be the most important behind the Western Hemisphere,” said Greg Poling, director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Instead, the U.S. is “doing the exact opposite” of its previously expressed goal of pulling out of the Middle East.
oh the empire is coming to murder me instead. awesome.
well, it might be smart to take taiwan now, even with the worldwide upset this would cause.
There is a good chance that the west has no answer to it.it might be smart to take taiwan now
Or just peacefully integrate socio-economically over the next 50 years. You kill a lot less people that way
China seems to be forgoing the peaceful, long term route as of late.
Details?
China has stated it would recognize not so much independence of Hong Kong but its self autonomy that allows it to run. They promised to the UK after the hand over to always respect that going forward. They held that up for a while but started pushing for legislatures and legislation that was friendly or directly from the mainland. When the expected upset came and people protested, they came down pretty hard on protests.
I know it was an extradition bill but there was a lot of valid concerns it’d be used to persecute unwanted dissidence and ship them to the mainland where they could simply disappear.
There was a lot of hysterical social media and agitation on behalf of a vocal minority inside Hong Kong. Even then, Hong Kong was already a police state under UK rule. It was one of the reasons Western libertarians loved the place (and it’s spiritual twin Singapore).
The idea that a Chinese aligned government would need to extradite someone from Hong Kong to the mainland only makes sense if the person in question was a fugitive from the mainland hiding specifically in Hong Kong. Which would make about as much sense as an American fleeing the US criminal justice system in Guam or Puerto Rico.
As to
China has stated it would recognize not so much independence of Hong Kong but its self autonomy that allows it to run.
The Hong Kong political structure remains intact. The leadership has all rolled over to Chinese aligned bureaucrats. And the modern-day pro-Democracy protests are an echo of the same pro-Democracy movement that sprang up under British rule back in the 1980s.
This is where Western spin sells people on “Evil China” by neatly sweeping the history of these regions under the rug. You get an earful about China being anti-democratic, when it inherits an anti-democratic UK colony that it promises not to reform. You get an earful about abhorrent Chinese labor practices (the 996) that predate the hand-over and are exempted from mainland labor protections for the same reason. You read about an extradition from Hong Kong to Taiwan and get an earful of spin about how this threatens people in Hong Kong from Hong Kong. And then you read about a Hong Kong riot that kills a couple of Hong Kong cops, rephrased as Tiananmen Square 2.
All this on the back of Chinese reforms that prohibit crypto-scams, crack down on medical quackery, reform predatory loans in the housing market, and dramatically improve labor and environmental standards nationwide, which just so happen to rub a bunch of MAGA-aligned US mega-corps the wrong way.
I’ll not argue part of the reason for the portrayal of China in a lot of particularly USA media is to keep establishing that they’re an enemy we need to be ready to might. Much like the Soviets, North Vietnamese, and North Koreans. And I will not deny that the USA has a shit history of conquering people.
That said China is not wholly innocent in not doing the same. They still push for influence for soft power, so does the USA, control colonies which the USA does as well, commits genocide which the USA has done. I honestly see them more as rivals than enemies to be destroyed, and rivalries aren’t inherently bad. When they become heavily antagonistic, which I’m certain both country’s medias love to play up, is where it goes from rivalry to cold warfare.
That said China is not wholly innocent in not doing the same.
I mean, the fact that you’ve got to caveat your caveats on this illustrates the dynamic at play. Chinese bureaucrats are focused on land and sea borders, building trans-Asiatic trade routes, and securing friendly relations with rich underdeveloped nations in the Global South. American bureaucrats are ambushing fishing boats, kidnapping presidents, starving entire islands of people, and bombing hospitals and schools.
They still push for influence for soft power
To what end, though? Not to be That Guy, but…
One of these countries is pursuing a very explicit policy of ethnic cleansing for the purpose of resource extraction and white nationalist enrichment. The other is doing industrial development, domestic enrichment, and cultural preservation, with an explicit but ultimately benign bias towards the national leadership.
At some point, Westerners criticizing China sound like the KKK - hoods and burning crosses and all - denouncing the NYPD while reading chapters from Howard Zinn’s People’s History. Even if you do land on a salient point, it comes across as nakedly opportunistic and insincere. Even more so when you’re doing Woke Land Acknowledgement for Tibet, while orchestrating fascist regime change all over Latin America.
And then what comes of it? Now we’ve got a Canadian PM stuck banning Chinese EVs to prop up the American gas-guzzler industry in the name of… national sovereignty? Economic independence? The newest Philippian dictator is fighting a turf war over a string of Pacific Islands for the benefit of who? Six billionaire families that run the island nation like their own private fief? In the name of… freedom and justice for all? American aircraft carriers lining up to flatten wedding parties in Yemen, before a glide bomb connects with their laundry room or the crew mutinies over half-rations of dog food?
Who is this critique of China in service of, exactly? Nobody in the know seriously believes these criticisms are coming from civil libertarians or liberal democrats. Everything is just in service to the all-consuming machine of techno-feudal corporate expansion for a handful of white nationalist oligarchs.
The Hong Kong protests everyone forgot about when covid started.
oh, a political pretense? Now tell me why Israel feels it has a right to level Palestine.
Say the word “Terrorism” and you can justify almost anything
Exposed flank. These guys are not MI (military intelligence), they are AI (alternative intelligence). Oh, stinky pete what have you wrought?
Bye Taiwan, so long and thanks for all the chipsets.
No one expects China to invade Taiwan because an American aircraft carrier has left the region. But the carrier’s absence gives the Chinese another opportunity to show its strength, said Bryan Clark, a former Navy submariner who is a defense analyst at the Hudson Institute.
Uh, fucking, I DO!
How many years and how fortuitous do the circumstances have to get before people stop insisting an invasion is imminent?
There’s an enormous amount of value in China and Taiwan remaining friendly trading partners. Westerners refuse to acknowledge this.
Tibet came under the rule of the Qing dynasty of China in 1720 after the Qing expelled the forces of the Dzungar Khanate from Tibet
:-/
hahhaha and there it is gentlemen, tankie gonna tank
Hasbara ass response.
lmao what a loser you are
But… but China bad!!!
The funny thing is I don’t think China actually expected the US military to nope themselves out potentially faster than their ability to surpass their reliance on Taiwan. I wouldn’t be surprised if they use it to strongarm a deal into essentially purchasing Taiwan if no one is left to back them.
China and Taiwan already do an enormous amount of trade. And some of Taiwan’s biggest companies are heavily invested on the Chinese mainland.
Despite the DPP’s fervent desires, that’s not going to change. So now the only question is whether an isolationistv party can continue to hold a majority in a country with an increasingly China centric economy.
If Iran can run the Navy ragged, imagine what India or China can do
So much of the joke is that they won’t need to.
唯一的制胜之策就是不参与
Translated to be “The only winning move is not to play.”
妛挧暃椦槞蟐袮閠駲墸壥彁
Someone went on Hacker News today huh
someone replied to my reply in the thread and I remembered this, so posting here - https://lemmy.world/post/50701889/25315013 - ignore or look as you wish, I know your comment above was just a quick thing, but sitll thought I’d link to where I found it since I ran across it again :)
I didn’t - I saw it on Lemmy, which linked to some sort of blog I think. I don’t remember details, it’s been a long day. heh.
That said, I haven’t been out there in a while, I should visit. Good site.
Man, all this is doing is showing any potential enemies just how fucking toothless the US is. Amazing show.
And yet we still spend so much freaking money on our military.
I’d argue it’s going to military contractors who are spending a lot on “research”. Grifters all the way down.
Especially that dork who named his companies after Tolkien things and practically has almost all the world’s cameras.
Leaders around the world are treating the US military defeat against Iran as a given and are planning for a future that does not include the US in any decisive role.
The current response of the nations in the Middle East is telling: plans are being drawn up and security cooperations being forged, while pretty much ignoring the US altogether.
Its likely a precursor for what we’ll see happen with nations surrounding the Sea of Japan and South China Sea in the upcoming months.
The largest, most powerful nation on earth has literally botched this war. Militarily, politically and economically. And as a result we’re now witnessing the US led global world order unravel completely. I think we’ve entered a very scary time.
botched
It was never winnable. No western nation would have won against Iran. The war is the dumbest war to begin with because of how unwinnable it was. Why are people acting as if Trump could have outsmarted Iran at any point ever? No NATO military leader would have won. The best choice for anyone is to just not start a war with Iran. A smart leader would have just not bombed Iran. No smart leader could win this war. That’s how stupid the war is. The smartest NATO leader right now, if they were fighting a war with Iran, would admit defeat.
It’s relatively easy to win that scenario you just have to commit 70 to 100k ground troops.
I admire your sarcasm
It’s not sarcasm, it’s a statement that winning a war against Iran is only a question of how many casualties you’re willing to accept.
We aren’t in theory land, we live in the real world. In the real world you are sarcastic. You also confuse simple with easy.
you should look up Iran on a topographic map some time, and see if you can find another example in history where the west (or russia for that matter) has failed to invade a country that is topographicaly similar, and much much smaller.
The invasion was fine, with full air support, the occupation isn’t a military challenge that’s a entirely social issue.
you simply don’t have a clue of the logistics nightmare that would be providing for that number of soldiers, specially now that Iran has bombed most USA bases that used to be around them
You would need turkey and kuwait support.
Troops who also quite likely would think the whole thing is an incredibly stupid farce, and that morale / commitment factor can’t be ignored.
You can have tons of advanced tech, stockpiles of munitions, highly trained fighters, and still lose because they don’t even know or care why they’re there in the first place. History is full of examples.
Defenders are fighting for their homeland, invaders are often (not always) there because their babydink leaders wanna be in a history book.
Invasions and taking turf for national “interests” is just stupid strategy anymore, especially in a globally connected world, and troglodyte fossils like Dump and Pootin refuse to accept that reality.
Vietnam, Korea, The Middle East, all of it has been a tragic waste of human lives and a national embarrassment.
And somehow they keep getting to flavor it so the public will buy it, even while so many people personally know veterans that have been used up, maimed, and thrown out like garbage.
Western Hemisphere? So he is going to attack Europe?
Dude is literally acting like the manchurian candidate
Manchurian Candidate: (intelligently acts on codewords after sophisticated brainwashing)
Donchurian Candidate: “Oh hey Pooty how’s it hangin. Sabotage an American institution? Another one? How much money? Sounds like a deal. A great deal. Biglyest deal.”
He said while sipping on his cup of covfefe…
deleted by creator
I don’t think I’ve lived to see a president who wasn’t accused of this
But very few had such obvious clandestine obligations to foreign adversaries and sociopathic individuals.
The point of having 11 carrier is that you can always have several of them in maintenance while others are in operation and still keep a reserve. It’s a massive mismanagement of assets to somehow have carriers running ragged and yet still need to pull carrier from other commitments.
Can’t even be competently evil. Yee yee ass Wana be evil empire.
China takes Taiwan - ram prices will go through the roof - don’t understand how trumptydumpty’s tech friends allowed him to do this. Oh well, the world may become a better place with China in the captain’s seat; Xi at least seems more intelligent and stable than Trump.
China takes Taiwan - ram prices will go through the roof - don’t understand how trumptydumpty’s tech friends allowed him to do This
Because USA tech friends want that: they want the trillion profits from squeezing the worker class out of the means of compute. Once we are all slaves we will pay back the dividends tenfold. They don’t care about China or Taiwan, they only care about China’s and Taiwan’s billionaire class, which is with them anyways.
Additionally, if China takes Taiwan, they’ll be able to exert heavy influence on Korea and Japan, as a huge part of their import/export flows through Taiwan Strait. Might be able to get the countries to cut down on diplomatic relations with the West, perhaps even getting rid of a few of USA’s military bases in Japan and South Korea
China takes Taiwan - ram prices will go through the roof
Guess who has figured out how to make cheap high end RAM already?
If China feints towards Taiwan, the Taiwanese government flinches, and the TSMC factory goes to in smoke, China becomes a top 3 provider of high end chips inside of the month.
Why would RAM prices go up? The normal process for China seems to be to scale up and massively cut prices.
It’s a war. Factories get destroyed, skilled workers die. There’s no way China invades and chip production continues without a hitch all the way through. Even in the best case scenario I expect years of lowered outputs.
The question was why prices would go up after China had control of the chip factories. That’s an entirely separate question from how many of the chip factories would survive.
But it’s also crazy to think that China would invade with boots on the ground. They’ve shown repeatedly that they can enforce 100% naval blockades on a moments notice and keep it up as long as they like. They can literally go back to medieval tactics and win via siege. That keeps Chinese military assets and personnel safe while also preserving infrastructure.
You’re absolutely right that it almost certainly wouldn’t continue without a hitch. The blockade would stop all the raw material shipments and all the exports. Despite claims that Taiwan would blow up the factories themselves, I don’t see why they would; once a takeover was underway blowing them up wouldn’t serve as a deterrent but it would remove the ability to use them for negotiations.
American ally-ship increasingly loses value as the Donald Administration progresses.
I wonder what the next president will do to try and win it back.
Latin American dictators seem to be lining up behind him and Rubio like ducklings.
I think the next president is going to inherit an absolute rogue’s gallery of “friends”
I don’t know what they’ll do, if anything. But what they’ll have to do, if they want to mend all the strained and broken relationships, it’s a whole fucking lot.
I mean a big mea culpa, true and long term changes to how the country is run, and probably lots and lots of concessions.
Will they get food, provisions, repairs,…
All that sounds Woke to me
