this post was submitted on 06 Nov 2023
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[–] [email protected] 173 points 10 months ago (36 children)

So if Iran goes full monty and China invades Taiwan while Russia is grinding down its population on the Ukrainian front, we'd have WW3 on our hands I reckon.

[–] [email protected] 117 points 10 months ago (2 children)

That war is already underway, we just won't be calling it that until after..

[–] [email protected] 49 points 10 months ago (1 children)

We won't be calling it that until the US has a draft.

[–] [email protected] 50 points 10 months ago (9 children)

Drafts have not won recent wars. Wars are not PVP.

The US has made an effort to maintain a highly trained and extremely specialized fighting force. It can take over a year of training in certain specialities before you even get to the last school house.

There's a focus on making advanced weapon systems easy to use through human factors analysis and that's slowly transitioning into killbots that do everything but pull the trigger and need a human in the loop to authorize the kill.

During WWII there was a massive increase in manufacturing which was beyond the enemies reach. If you got drafted to do anything it'd likely be work in a plant making drones or something logistical such as transporting drones.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yes the US tries to make soldiers the operators of weaponry, not the weapons themselves as in earlier times. Treasure spent on weaponry stokes the military industrial complex. Benefits to dead veterans families, not so much. Also civilian deaths undermine public support for whatever bullshit they are doing.

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[–] [email protected] 42 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Not really a world war until 10 countries are actively involved with 2 of them USA and China.

Right now usa is passive and china is not involved.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 10 months ago

We're in the lend and lease phase right now

[–] [email protected] 16 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I could see it being called a proxy world war. There's enough concentration of where support is coming from.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I think that’s just called a Cold War. We didn’t invade Vietnam because we actually give a shit about Vietnamese people, it was a proxy war with the USSR

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[–] [email protected] 92 points 10 months ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 84 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It was never meant to be covert. That doesn't work as a deterrent. The headline means quiet as in not announced, not as In nobody knows.

Like, if you quietly left a party. It just means you didn't say goodbye, it does not mean that you're still hiding in the building.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Oh but I DO hide in the building after I “quietly” leave. Then I just like sit at the breakfast table in my “borrowed” jammies and ask what’s for breakfast as my gracious host rounds the corner in the morning

[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago

Ah, that explains your confusion.

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[–] [email protected] 65 points 10 months ago (8 children)

Is there any active or potential war the US isn't paying for?

[–] [email protected] 61 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The US is paying because it needs Taiwan. If Taiwan didn't have value for the US, it would have been overrun by China a decade ago

[–] [email protected] 32 points 10 months ago (2 children)

israel and ukraine as well. it's no coincidence that right next to a powerful country (or, in israel's case, a bloc of countries) that the US is unfriendly with there is a client state whose entire existence depends on Western funding.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 10 months ago

The bulk of the US economy is based on taking money from working people and then consolidating it to billionaires that run defense corporations. So "paying for" it's basically just an engine for making rich Americans more rich.

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[–] [email protected] 48 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Well Taiwan can either go with the US or China. They've been wanting to stay independent from China for a while now so I don't think it's much of a surprise.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 10 months ago (7 children)

Almost all countries other than USA, Russia, and China have to pick a side.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 10 months ago (15 children)

I mean Russia is pretty close to needing to pick a side.

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[–] [email protected] 40 points 10 months ago (3 children)

So quietly that no one knows about it

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[–] [email protected] 39 points 10 months ago (39 children)

Good. Even if nobody likes 'murica, their weapons work well enough to deter China from doing something stupid.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 10 months ago

BBC found out about it. It aint that quiet.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 10 months ago (7 children)

Give them a bunch of nukes and biological weapons and after they arrive send a message to the PRC

"Just a fyi, we sent them a 100 but they only received 80. Be a real shame if Taiwanese operators had planted them in randomly selected cities on the mainland."

It will be hilarious way to end the world.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 10 months ago (1 children)

...and Israel, for that matter.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 10 months ago (6 children)

At least Taiwan isn't an apartheid state.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago (3 children)

I mean, yeah, why wouldn't they?

Should we just let China carpetbomb Taiwan instead?

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 10 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


When US President Joe Biden recently signed off on a $80m grant to Taiwan for the purchase of American military equipment, China said it "deplores and opposes" what Washington had done.

It is sending a clear message of strategic clarity to Beijing that we stand together," says Wang Ting-yu, a ruling party legislator with close ties to Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen, and to US Congressional chiefs.

He says the $80m is the tip of what could be a very large iceberg, and notes that in July President Biden used discretionary powers to approve the sale of military services and equipment worth $500m to Taiwan.

But Dr Lai says it's possible to make educated guesses: Javelin and Stinger anti-aircraft missiles - highly effective weapons that forces can learn to use quickly.

A war-gaming exercise conducted by a think-tank last year found that in a conflict with China, Taiwan's navy and air force would be wiped out in the first 96 hours of battle.

The focus will switch to ground troops, infantry and artillery - repelling an invasion on the beaches and, if necessary, fighting the People's Liberation Army (PLA) in the towns and cities, and from bases deep in the island's jungle-covered mountains.


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