Fourth Taiwan Strait Crisis

[AndrewS]

Just look at those clowns in London, Brussels, Paris and Berlin who would rather shoot themselves in the foot because they refused to negotiate a peace deal with Russia on the Ukraine crisis.

You can justify that stance if you wanted to punish Russia.

But what actually happened was European governments tearing up long-term contracts with Russia for low cost gas, so companies ended up buying the same gas on the spot market because there is no alternative.

But that gas costs a lot more, with the result that even more money is being sent to Russia.

That is shooting yourself in the foot.

 

[Squidward]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1553478773693190145

She wouldn't fly on a military plane if she were visiting any other country, right? Doesn't this basically confirm her visit?

 

[supersnoop]

So I’m told that the US is always upholding democracy. Pelosi is a representative of the people of California.

So I’m asking anyone from California, was “Have your representative potentially start a nuclear war (worst case scenario)?” a ballot initiative last time?

 

[Overbom]

So what's her trip schedule? First to Japan and then to Taiwan?

 

[dropout003]

A real weakness but quite misunderstood and exaggerated. It is true that China is quite vulnerable to an oil blockade. But there are a few things people miss.

1- Malacca isn't very important. It is used because of the infrastructure provided by Singapore and its closeness to the Asian mainland. There are many bodies of water there. In fact, the largest oil tankers already avoid Malacca because of its shallowness. The assets the US needs to blockade China are quite substantial in amount because of this. This means a lot fewer assets to deal with in China's periphery

2- It would have no effects on Chinese war making capability, heating and electricity production. China produces a lot of oil and heating is usually done using coal. Transportation would be hit. But that's about it.

3- Most people miss it but modern navies are not suited for either blockades or merchant escorts. They grew too small for that. Unless the US engages in unrestricted warfare against merchant marine I can't see how they could accomplish an effective blockade.

4- Blockading China equals blockading the entire world and a blanket blockade on SCS and the Persian gulf would break the global economy. It would have huge political costs for the USA.

5- Most US patrol assets, which would be spread thin because of the geography, would be vulnerable to Chinese surface groups and conventional subs. Yuan is not a coastal sub after all. Only American assets that are under aircraft carrier coverage would be safe.

CAsia + Russia + Myanmar + Overland from Iran not enough?

 

[zgx09t]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1553478773693190145

That's at least a step to de-escalation.
It's a Pentagon plane, so safety decision is up to them, so the hag has to stick with them if she wants a ride on it.
Or switch to a boat, or maybe a zoom or team call.
Go, no go, is up to Pentagon.
Those people flying the plane don't answer to her, but to the Pentagon bosses, who would in turn answer to potato in chief.

 

[zgx09t]

I for one am not worried about western sanctions and blockade at all. If it's such an easy thing to accomplish, without any unintended consequences so much damaging to the west itself, they have done it on one excuse or another long time ago. Go ahead, see what happens, it might as well accelerate the rise of the others, and downfall of western bloc.

 

[BoraTas]

That's at least a step to de-escalation.
It's a Pentagon plane, so safety decision is up to them, so the hag has to stick with them if she wants a ride on it.
Or switch to a boat, or maybe a zoom or team call.
Go, no go, is up to Pentagon.
Those people flying the plane don't answer to her, but to the Pentagon bosses, who would in turn answer to potato in chief.

This also means Biden can stop her now. So singing the tune of separation of powers wouldn't cut it now. We will see how dependable Biden's promises are.

 

[zgx09t]

This also means Biden can stop her now. So singing the tune of separation of powers wouldn't cut it now. We will see how dependable Biden's promises are.

Of course unless she has a broom lying around somewhere, then Pentagon has to write up a mysterious missing woman report to Congress.

Brandon is just a place holder. If this episode goes kinetic or not is a distant secondary importance. The fact is people can't normalize adverse realities forever as if it'd go away if you keep normalizing over a certain long enough time period. It is not. This is the new normal. If US insists on a kinetic conflict, so be it.

 

[vincent]

C-17 should have RWR, so if Chinese fighters light it up with their fire control radar, it would know and hopefully turn around