Why should he care? It won’t be him or his family fighting on the beaches.
PLA Strategy in a Taiwan Contingency
- Thread starter pugachev_diver
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Why should he care? It won’t be him or his family fighting on the beaches.
The comic seems to be making fun of the ROC military personnel "mowing lawns" instead of "training for battle" (as it criticized ROC military brass not hiring civilian contractors to mow lawns)......Well guess who mows the lawn within PLA bases huh? (Answer: PLA soldiers and officers)
Armchair diplomats confirmed
plawolf
Lieutenant General
He should care if he wants his suggestions do have a snowball’s chance in hell of actually being used.
Right now he is essentially advising the entire population of Taiwan to train and prepare themselves to be suicide bombers with killing more Chinese being both the only reason and reward they should ever need, and seems genuinely miffed as to why absolutely no one is keen on his suggestions.
Even the Taliban had more empathy and compassion to their actual suicide bombers.
The part where he say "I met with PLA soldiers and they are all peasants and don't match the professionalism as our US army" is the part where I shut down completely and decide he's an idiot.
This blogger is a typical arrogant American. He has this a predictable American mindset of: "I won't fight for you if you won't fight for yourself!". This American expects the Taiwanese to defend themselves like how the Vietcong or Taliban would defend themselves from the USA. He wants the Taiwanese to have that mentality of: asymmetrical, guerilla warfare, David vs Goliath mindset to fight the PLA. Because what he sees in Taiwan is the opposite of that, he believes that they are not worth American lives to defend. Have we not seen this kind of condescending attitude against: Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, etc?
This blogger complains about: lack of relevant training, lack of strategy, lack of ammunition, lack of morale, and too many 'Blue-leaning' top brass. I believe him, Taiwan is not ready for a real war. But he fails to grasp the bigger picture. What is Taiwan fighting for actually? The Americans and the Pan-Greens would like to think that Taiwan will fight for the American-imposed ideals of independence, democracy, and liberty. But is that a worthwhile ideal to die for the average Taiwanese? Its actually quite a hollow ideal considering how the USA, and the current Green government is ironically quite authoritarian and corrupt. The only Taiwanese who claim to be most committed to fight for these ideals are the politicians, activists, and journalists. But these fools will not be doing any of the direct fighting and dying. They want the soldiers to fight and die for them, while they cheerlead from behind. How then are the soldiers going to be motivated for that? Are these fools worth dying for?
What about Chinese ideals? What is so wrong for Taiwan to be reunified with mainland China? It'll end the hostilities. Taiwan can reap the full benefits of the Chinese economy, technology, human capital, and protection. Most importantly, it'll massively right the wrongs of the 'Century of Humiliation'. Taiwan would still retain its unique identity under the One-Country, Two-Systems framework. Taiwan would be liberated from the political dictatorship imposed by foreign powers who couldn't give a damn about them.
Why should Taiwan even trust America? America is trying to drain TSMC of its technologies and move them to the USA. Semiconductors is Taiwan's only true competitive industry left. America says it loves the Taiwanese, but still treats them as 'yellow-men'. America doesn't trust Taiwan enough to sell its most modern arms. America says it won't fight for the Taiwanese, unless they show that they are ready to fight and die for American ideals. America has proven time and time again, to abandoned its pet regimes to its enemy. Is this someone you would trust with your life?
He’s a hardcore conservative, cut him some slack.
Will it? The risk of conflict breaking out may not change but the price if it does will rise. With 300 new silos and unknown number of subs and mobile launchers there is less guarantee the cost is ever rising.
A backdown to a strategic threat means they lose all prestige, worse than abandoning Taiwan or even a conventional defeat.
An escalation to meet a nuclear threat means they're putting the homeland on the line in an all-in, for a pawn. And with 300 silos poised for launch on warning the price will be existential.
Except that will result in a further increase in Chinese military spending and capabilities
The objective being to persuade the USA that a formal guarantee to Taiwan was actually a big mistake