Re: Great China VS U.S war book
In the face of apperant thread necromancy, here are my 2 cents.
So, here comes my little review after having read most of the book.
What I liked:
-The battles were very good, and better than Tom Clancy since they werent a forgegone conclusion. I also liked that the antagonists behave reasonally on the tactical and scientific scales, although I never bought the use of Human wave tactics by the Chinese (still, most fictional wars books playing in the current era or the near future have the opponents of the USA fighting like the last Sudanese militia, no matter if they happen to be Russia, China, France, Germany or whoever else)
-The scientific innovations very "reasonable", no sudden doomsday devices were created or employed. In WW2, we basically went from Propellor driven short range flight to beeing a step away from space. Having functional space ships after a third World War does not seem that far fetched.
What I dislike:
-The politcal alliances felt a bit arbitrary, for example, I have a hard time seeing that Greece (NATO member) would suddenly attack Turkey while Turkey is fighting a NATO war for its own survival. Similairly, Real Turkey is heavily antogonistic towards any "Kurdistan" ideas, although it may accept a Kurdish buffer in the current scenario.
-On a similiar vein, exactly what is India wanting in Madagascar?
-Smugglin 600K of heavily armed (Indian)troops into Siberia under the eyes of the FSB? That may have happened under Jelzin, it wont happen under Putin. Also, a relativly democratic society like India would be unable to keep such a move totally secret.
To me, India outspying Russia is as likely as the Austro-Hungarian Empire winning a naval war against the Royal Navy.
What actually annoyed me:
It really appeared that the Author wanted to proseletyse others to convert to "American conservatism". Several stereotypes (cowardly French, evil Mass media, evil immigrants etc.) are a bit too apperant in the book.
The part were science suddenly discovers that human fetuses are sacred is totally superflous (and as a scientist it did not make sense), and did not add anything to the story.
Similiarly the part with the terrorist who were illegal immigrants is not realistic.
Why would China or India rely on predominantly Mexicans to conduct Terror attacks? There is no shortage of either (Chinese or Indian) nationality in the US. Also, a terrorist working for a major country will have no problems at all in aquiring a totally valid visa (and propably buy totall legal Weapons with it). Last but no least, If I would be a sleeper, beeing illegal would be a huge liability, especially if getting a Green Card is anything but difficult.
I would, to an extent, see the point of arming the citicenry in the face of a persistent guerillia threat on my own territory (which is an oxymoron, Guerillias without support in the areas they operate can be easily removed by conventional forces, however in this situation conventional forces may have been unavailable), however, the tradeoff would be a severe amount of lynching, which always happens in a nation under severe internal attack and which would happen much more if weapons are highly proliferated.
I hope that didnt sound too hostile, it was an enjoyable read for the most part, and thank you to making it available for free.
Cheers,
Mightypeon
P.S. my 2 cents on the Georgia crisis.
What happened is that Georgia attacked South Ossetia (evidenced by the day one capture of the South Ossetian capital, Georgias army is uncapably of making advances agaisnt Russia without having suprise on their side), Russia honoured its informal guarantee of independence regarding South Ossetia and struck back, forcing Georgia to return to soemthing slightly weaker than the Status Quo Ante Bellum.
Every poster that heavily praises the idea of "reinforcing national integrety" over "breakaway provinces" by force of arms, would also have to praise Chinese attempts to forcibly reclaim Taiwan. for your notice, there is no formal US guarantee of Taiwanese independence, since the USA do no recognice Taiwan. In practice, the US would propably go to war other Taiwan, just as Russia did over South Ossetia.
These similiarities between Taiwan and South Ossetia are also the main reason why China will not diplomatically recognice South Ossetia.
In the face of apperant thread necromancy, here are my 2 cents.
So, here comes my little review after having read most of the book.
What I liked:
-The battles were very good, and better than Tom Clancy since they werent a forgegone conclusion. I also liked that the antagonists behave reasonally on the tactical and scientific scales, although I never bought the use of Human wave tactics by the Chinese (still, most fictional wars books playing in the current era or the near future have the opponents of the USA fighting like the last Sudanese militia, no matter if they happen to be Russia, China, France, Germany or whoever else)
-The scientific innovations very "reasonable", no sudden doomsday devices were created or employed. In WW2, we basically went from Propellor driven short range flight to beeing a step away from space. Having functional space ships after a third World War does not seem that far fetched.
What I dislike:
-The politcal alliances felt a bit arbitrary, for example, I have a hard time seeing that Greece (NATO member) would suddenly attack Turkey while Turkey is fighting a NATO war for its own survival. Similairly, Real Turkey is heavily antogonistic towards any "Kurdistan" ideas, although it may accept a Kurdish buffer in the current scenario.
-On a similiar vein, exactly what is India wanting in Madagascar?
-Smugglin 600K of heavily armed (Indian)troops into Siberia under the eyes of the FSB? That may have happened under Jelzin, it wont happen under Putin. Also, a relativly democratic society like India would be unable to keep such a move totally secret.
To me, India outspying Russia is as likely as the Austro-Hungarian Empire winning a naval war against the Royal Navy.
What actually annoyed me:
It really appeared that the Author wanted to proseletyse others to convert to "American conservatism". Several stereotypes (cowardly French, evil Mass media, evil immigrants etc.) are a bit too apperant in the book.
The part were science suddenly discovers that human fetuses are sacred is totally superflous (and as a scientist it did not make sense), and did not add anything to the story.
Similiarly the part with the terrorist who were illegal immigrants is not realistic.
Why would China or India rely on predominantly Mexicans to conduct Terror attacks? There is no shortage of either (Chinese or Indian) nationality in the US. Also, a terrorist working for a major country will have no problems at all in aquiring a totally valid visa (and propably buy totall legal Weapons with it). Last but no least, If I would be a sleeper, beeing illegal would be a huge liability, especially if getting a Green Card is anything but difficult.
I would, to an extent, see the point of arming the citicenry in the face of a persistent guerillia threat on my own territory (which is an oxymoron, Guerillias without support in the areas they operate can be easily removed by conventional forces, however in this situation conventional forces may have been unavailable), however, the tradeoff would be a severe amount of lynching, which always happens in a nation under severe internal attack and which would happen much more if weapons are highly proliferated.
I hope that didnt sound too hostile, it was an enjoyable read for the most part, and thank you to making it available for free.
Cheers,
Mightypeon
P.S. my 2 cents on the Georgia crisis.
What happened is that Georgia attacked South Ossetia (evidenced by the day one capture of the South Ossetian capital, Georgias army is uncapably of making advances agaisnt Russia without having suprise on their side), Russia honoured its informal guarantee of independence regarding South Ossetia and struck back, forcing Georgia to return to soemthing slightly weaker than the Status Quo Ante Bellum.
Every poster that heavily praises the idea of "reinforcing national integrety" over "breakaway provinces" by force of arms, would also have to praise Chinese attempts to forcibly reclaim Taiwan. for your notice, there is no formal US guarantee of Taiwanese independence, since the USA do no recognice Taiwan. In practice, the US would propably go to war other Taiwan, just as Russia did over South Ossetia.
These similiarities between Taiwan and South Ossetia are also the main reason why China will not diplomatically recognice South Ossetia.
