WHO IS STRONGER MILITARILY? CHINA OR U.S.?

Japan woke a sleeping giant when it bombed Pearl Harbor. The U.S. woke a sleeping giant when it elected Trump President. China.

China was content to stay in third position in world power behind the U.S. and Russia. Quietly doing its dirty work, quietly improving its military, and as best possible keeping itself out of foreign wars.

Russia has limited power today. From a military perspective, an excellent submarine fleet. And of course atomic weapons left over from World War II which it has improved upon.

Were it not for a leader such as Putin, Russia would be of minimal influence in world affairs. Putin has not relented in his quest to return Russia to the power it enjoyed when it was part of the Soviet Union.

Russia at best is in third place power wise.

The U.S. has been the great power. We thought so. The rest of the world also. Or, so we thought.

The truth is the U.S. has steadily and quietly weakened itself militarily as will be described in this blog. In addition to fighting 20 plus years of wars that should not have been our concern. Wars that weakened us. Wars that wasted our monies.

And then, the American people did what few thought possible. Elected Donald Trump President. The U.S. slide downward began with his swearing in. No President has done worse.

In every respect. Even to the coronavirus epidemic. He has blundered his way through it causing more sickness and death than should have been. Weakening the American fiber in the process.

China yesterday began its major crack down on Hong Kong. America normally would do something. Trump silent so far. His problem is neither he nor his immediate staff know what to do. They are incapable.

Trump never the less stands on the dime. Tensions between the 2 nations will grow even worse. Additional sanctions being discussed already.

This is a new Cold War. Similar to the U.S./Russia one. It will go on for years. Each side hopefully not pushing the button that will commence a nuclear Armageddon.

The Cold War will first be felt on the farm fields of the U.S.

Trump has already done serious damage to American farmers.  Almost from day one with his sanctions involving China. China has retaliated. Each side continues to do so.

Farmers will get destroyed even more. Most of them from States that supported Trump in the 2016 election. I doubt they will in November.

Relations are already strained between the U.S. and China. Going to be for a long time. Twenty years at least from my way of thinking.

As with the U.S./Russia Cold war, both the U.S. and China must be ready militarily to strike or retaliate if necessary.

The U.S. to succeed must without question be the stronger of the two. Otherwise the American people will begin fearing Chinese domination as it did during the previous Cold War involving Russia.

During the past 3 years, I have written several times that from a military perspective, the U.S. was not a match for or superior to the newly developed might of China. We were in a difficult place and no one seemed concerned. Including Trump.

David Ignatius is a Washington Post columnist. An expert in world affairs. He recently wrote an article  for the Washington Post titled: “Think We Have Military Prominence Over China? Think Again.”

I will be paraphrasing the column. He calls it as he sees it. Hits the nail on the head!

Ignatius wrote the U.S. spends nearly $1 trillion a year on defense. China the U.S.’s primary rival. The U.S. has almost a perfect record over the last 10 years in U.S./China war games. The U.S. has lost every time.

The problem seems to be the U.S. has no “kill chain.” The U.S. lacks the capacity to see threats and take quick, decisive action to stop them.

Washington is blind. The U.S. fails to see the future, does not look to the future.

Ignatius places blame on the government, the Pentagon, and Congress. The government, yesterday and today, depends on the Pentagon to guide it. The Pentagon is excellent in seeing what they did yesterday. Understanding how things were done yesterday. No vision into the future.

Congress equally unable to see beyond the past. It wants things done in a similar fashion yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Everyone stuck in a rut. No future thinking.

The U.S. has been so busy buffing its legacy system that it “got ambushed by the future.” It’s a new world! Especially following the end of the pandemic.

China clearly is determined to challenge the U.S. as the global power. Propaganda wars over the origin of the Covid-19 virus just a warm up for the tests ahead.

China’s approach to the military and the U.S. approach are different.

China’s military is not focused on power. Rather on preventing American domination. China cares not the number of carriers and squadrons of jets the U.S. has. China’s approach is not to build carrier per carrier and plane per plane to compete with the U.S.

China’s way is to dwell on precision weapons. Weapons to prevent the U.S. from mobilizing their forces.

For example, the U.S. builds carriers. China does also, but not as many as the U.S. China instead has developed the DF-21. A missile capable of taking out a U.S. carrier. Referred to as the “carrier killer.”

Missiles cheaper to build and operate than carriers in this regard.

Washington lobbyists are a problem. They represent corporations that build yesterday’s weaponry. They are not concerned with military weapons for tomorrow. That would cost their clients more money to produce. An absorbent amount!

Congress goes along. Appropriates monies for current technology. A President signs the appropriation bill believing the more money spent the safer the U.S. will be.

Ignatius advises the U.S. continues to build for an “outmoded strategy” of “projecting power” rather than arming ourselves to deny “China military dominance.”

Ignatius believes the U.S. needs a “radical rethink” as regards its military. The U.S. has the money, technological base, and the human talent to do so.

What is lacking is the will to change.

Ignatius’ message is it would be foolish to enter a new, post pandemic world with the same military hardware.

It’s the 21st century!

Enjoy your day!

22 comments on “WHO IS STRONGER MILITARILY? CHINA OR U.S.?

  1. Wow Lou, you’ve hit the nail on it’s head – We’ve awoken the giant who was content to be sleeping!

    And your readers with their head in the SAND will prove it with dumb answers about how you are wrong, because we have a better flag and NASCAR racing, instead of realizing you are right and how we must best act to be better prepared to exist in this new world. The first order of business will NEED be new leadership, people without their hands in the cookie jar.

  2. I bet that China could kill everyone in Hong Kong tomorrow and nobody in the World would lift a finger. The only retaliation against their government might come from within China itself.

    • Sounds like Sandy Feet is trying to Troll under a name other than his own, that NO ONE would EVER think was HIM!

    • I bet that Donald Trump, our dictator, could kill everyone in New York City tomorrow and nobody in the World would lift a finger. The only retaliation against their government might come from within New York City itself.

  3. It’s always interesting to hear another new military Armageddon analysis from David Ignatius. Mr Ignatius is best known for his writing of a dozen espionage-related fictional thriller novels. He does not have a security clearance or access to Pentagon readiness and strategic planning data. He is not known to have any access to Chinese military officials. He is not generally regarded as an authority on development of advanced military weapon systems. Perhaps he should stick to writing espionage novels. Could it be that his alarmist Washington Post columns are helpful to his book sales?

    • Well at least he’s not one of Donald Trump’s typical officials in charge of something important, like say our scandalous Secretary of State who is actually running things on what most intelligent people consider fictional facts, or Betsey DeVos, whose idea or reality is mostly fictional. Ever listen to Tucker Carlson of Glen Beck, perhaps they too should stick to anything they want to spread distortions about. David Ignatius may not be the best possible authority on this subject, but he’s better than any of the remaining (not yet fired) experts Trump has running the country on this subject. And he’s entitled to write what ever he thinks on the subject to the Washington Post or any other legit publication. Mostly, I think you might want to think about running off at the mouth about anyone YOU disagree with before you clean up your own back yard.

    • But it is NEVER actually “common sense” it is opinion, usually always Trump’s opinion and usually always wrong!

  4. Why waste all of that money sending your kids to college when all they really need to succeed is common sense?

  5. Say that Trump starts a war with China. Then the whole world gets nuked and no more cov19 bugs. Problem solved.

  6. Why is Trump going to Baltimore, especially after the mayor there said that wasn’t a good idea right now! Didn’t Trump say that he thought Baltimore was a “Sh*t Hole” with nothing but rats and blacks? Now he wants to go there? Did I miss his apology for his outrageous comments?

  7. Just send more of that Phony money from DC which serves to cheapen the dollars we have in our pockets Trump and Nancy

    • Persistent pest and troll, always willing to add his 2 cents, even if its not true, misleading, or just plain unnecessary.

  8. The “kill chain” of the missile requires processing and constantly updating data of a carrier’s location, preparing the launch, programming information, and then firing, a chain the U.S. military’s AirSea Battle concept involves disrupting. Some U.S. analysts believe that the DF-21D doesn’t fly any faster than Mach 5. Wiki

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