Are we ripe for the taking?

[FromMyColdDeadHand]

I dont think anyone wants to make a move against mainland US.


But they HAVE figured out that they can basically do whatever they want throughout the rest of the world; and America won't do a damn thing. All the attacks on Israel never would have happened under trump.

This. Taiwan and the Baltic states are screwed if China and Russia want to take them back. China already has screwed Hong Kong in the ass. If they decide to directly go after us, which I just don’t see happening, they are screwed. IE take Taiwan after some made up offense, they would get away with - attack a US carrier group to make it happen— not going to go well, for them.

[SteyrAUG]

This. Taiwan and the Baltic states are screwed if China and Russia want to take them back. China already has screwed Hong Kong in the ass. If they decide to directly go after us, which I just don’t see happening, they are screwed. IE take Taiwan after some made up offense, they would get away with - attack a US carrier group to make it happen— not going to go well, for them.

So the Chinese didn't take Hong Kong back, the UK lease expired. Taiwan would be different, Taiwan is kind of like South Korea, it could start shit if they moved on it.

[Diamondback]

You guys might find this piece by my former boss from my RedState days worth the read...
https://americanfreenewsnetwork.org/...gArticleID=772

"If one looks over the past year, a disturbing pattern emerges of potential actions being rehearsed to enable China to do what the Japanese did in 1941. That is, run the table on their strategic objectives, with the difference being that China could land the knockout blow that Japan was unable to administer.

It is now clear to anyone but the most thoroughly bought-and-paid-for Chinese backers in the State Department and the US media that the Wuhan virus was created in a lab run by the Chinese military. We don’t yet know if the release was accidental or “accidental,” but what we do know is that while the Chinese had quarantined Wuhan from all travel to the greater Communist China, they still permitted international flights. So, from this data point alone, the premise that the virus was deliberately released is supportable, and the virus was spread to a) gauge Western reaction to a “pandemic,” and b) economically and politically damage the West.

Over the past year, the United States has been the subject of an unprecedented number of cyber-attacks. The best known is the ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline, but that was just one of many. Details are here, but the trend is unsettling. The high number of such attacks in October coincides with about the time that the Wuhan virus was “accidentally” being released.

... [fastforward to close]

"The stuff of action novels? Sure. But think about it for a moment. Is the likelihood that all of this happening over the past year by accident any greater than the likelihood that we’ve seen a series of probes and rehearsals for a Chinese move to achieve strategic dominance in the Pacific without a full-blown war with the US. If everyone is saying that China will move to regain control of Taiwan sooner rather than later, why wouldn’t they try to run the table?

Keep in mind, we’re looking at capabilities—which we know—not intentions—which are unknowable. Also keep in mind, in the words of Ian Fleming, “Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action.” I think we have to assume we are well past three instances at this point."

Trust me, the whole thing is worth the read--and I'm not just saying this because the author was the only guy who had my back when the entire rest of the Full Psycho Nevertard site leadership that preceded him wanted to throw me out for "insufficient NeverTrump zeal" like a bunch of 1790s French Jacobins.

[SteyrAUG]

First problem I see is ransomware attacks came from Russia, not China.

And I don't see Putin being stupid enough to cozy up to or trust China.

Someone once said, if you look for a conspiracy hard enough...eventually you will find it even it it isn't actually there.

[SomeOtherGuy]

The USA is supposedly headed up by a doddering, demented old guy who is obviously incapable of leadership or critical thought, as observed by anyone who takes a close look (including most of our allies, and their popular press), and somewhere between 40% and 65% of the US electorate doesn't really believe he won the election anyway. (I'm not claiming Trump got 65% of the vote - rather Trump got 52-55% of the vote, and there are a significant number of Dems who hate Trump but don't really believe Biden won, as it's just blindingly obvious who voted for what in much of the midwest.)

The actual "Office of the President" power is being exercised by no one knows who, probably a group of people with little fiefdoms and uncertain power that varies from day to day. Congress is hyper-dysfunctional and looks about like 1859. There is no real chain of command anywhere, just political jockeying and shifting loyalties. Far-left governors are intentionally destroying their states, economically and socially, for fun and with aspirations of some power over the resulting wasteland. Race relations that were OK have been set back 50 years or more, and there's an uncontrolled invasion at the southern border, which "Biden" along with large parts of the federal government are not only failing to fight, but actually facilitating and encouraging.

The SecDef is practically a socialist, and a booster for CRT. We've sunk like a trillion dollars on two jets (F-35 and F-22) that have very little operational availability and dubious capabilities even when able to fly. The USAF wants to dispose of the A-10 for the 9th time and Congress is refusing. There are serious proposals to acquire more F-15s, a jet that was designed when most Baby Boomers were in high school and we were under presidents Johnson and Nixon, because nothing newer is really doing the job. Our latest refueling plane doesn't work, and the ones that do work are being retired due to extreme age.

Meanwhile the Navy has trouble getting people to steer its ships without crashing into random freighters, and yet they double down on "diversity" and worthless political crap. We are continuing to acquire near useless LCS ships, we have a bunch of aircraft carriers we can barely run, our submarines are no longer better than the latest Russian designs, and it's basically a question of whether the navy fails first from widespread incompetence, mutiny and wokeness, or sheer failure of maintenance and logistics.

I don't follow Big A quite as closely but it seems to have the same general problems as the AF and Navy, minus the crashing.

I doubt that any of the big 3 military branches can operate competently in any kind of war environment, much less a surprise attack from a peer adversary. The USMC seems to be trying to take on most of the possible roles of the Army and half those of the Navy, which makes me wonder if its generals concluded they are "on their own" as the 3.5th branch of the military. The USMC doesn't seem to be fully messed up like the big 3 but by itself is not going to hold the line against China, etc. And of course it relies on the Navy to get places 99% of the time.

We are clearly behind both Russia and China on hypersonic missile technology, and probably behind Russia (at least) on air defense technology as well.

So yeah, any realistic peer country that wanted to attack us would find this an ideal time to do so, although three or six months from now is probably just as good.

I don't expect a full frontal attack though. It would probably provoke a nuclear response, and could also cause our failing empire to coalesce back into something functional. Instead, I expect all our enemies - which are many, including China, Iran, North Korea, Turkey (realistically, despite NATO membership and our base there), Pakistan, Venezuela, and probably a dozen others - to poke at the edges constantly to cause weakness and minor failures, intending that to lead to a major failure and collapse in the next several years.

[Business_Casual]

Well that’s cheery.

The 1936 Olympic Games: Berlin

The 2022 Olympic Games: Beijing

[yoni]

The Chinese attached the USA in the worlds first biological war, and they won.

The USA did absolutely nothing against the Chinese and the world followed because it was the path of least resistance.

They are buying American farm land to feed their people in China, not to sell the produce in the USA.

But too many of our leaders are taking money and support from the ChiComms, too many Universities have taken huge money and the ChiComs are sending their agents to steal our secretes in the guise of students.

If the Chicom flu wasn't enough to wake up everyone in the USA, then I don't know what will be.

It is now becoming evident in the UK and Israel that vaccines against this stuff only last so long 58% of the people in hospital in Israel have had both shots, add an other 3% that have had one shot.
One doctor in Israel believes that the vaccine after 6 months of the last shot will still be only 16% effective.

Why do they need to make a move on the USA homeland, when the USA has been neutralized without firing a shot.

So very Sun Tzu.

[flenna]

The Chinese attached the USA in the worlds first biological war, and they won.

The USA did absolutely nothing against the Chinese and the world followed because it was the path of least resistance.

They are buying American farm land to feed their people in China, not to sell the produce in the USA.

But too many of our leaders are taking money and support from the ChiComms, too many Universities have taken huge money and the ChiComs are sending their agents to steal our secretes in the guise of students.

If the Chicom flu wasn't enough to wake up everyone in the USA, then I don't know what will be.

It is now becoming evident in the UK and Israel that vaccines against this stuff only last so long 58% of the people in hospital in Israel have had both shots, add an other 3% that have had one shot.
One doctor in Israel believes that the vaccine after 6 months of the last shot will still be only 16% effective.

Why do they need to make a move on the USA homeland, when the USA has been neutralized without firing a shot.

So very Sun Tzu.

Exactly. Why would China invade when they can just own us and our resources?

[Grand58742]

The answer, like others have said, isn't simple. Yes, we are "ripe" for the picking in the sense that politically we are divided more than any other time since the Civil War and I have this feeling some on the opposite side of the political aisle would prefer to blame the Administration (regardless of which party controls the White House) for the ills of an overt attack than the people responsible. I have little doubt a 9/11 style attack might unify the people for a brief moment in time, but even with that we were back to squabbling less than two years later.

But on the point, I would hope nobody ever takes Xi Jinping or Vladimir Putin lightly because they both are way smarter than our current President. Xi seems like the long game type of person who knows exactly how to hit us where it hurts the most (economically) and holds the high ground on some of our most vital assets like medical and technology. Putin is a relic of the Cold War who is a crafty statesman that's playing in the shadows. Again, he knows how to poke and prod behind the scenes and watch us go into a shark feeding frenzy with each other rather than overtly doing anything. Plus, he's going to get blamed by the left anyway.

But make no mistake, both nations were intently watching our response to the pandemic and making notes of what the Covidiots were doing.

But what both probably realize is the easiest way to defeat the United States is allow us to defeat ourselves first. There is no reason to overtly attack us as Steyr pointed out as it does little more than unify us for a brief period of time against that aggressor (see 9/11). However, if you allow a nation to tear itself apart internally and remove themselves from the world stage, it makes your job of getting what you wanted easier in the long run. Both are allowing the "useful idiots" (a term I thought was attributed to Lenin, but I found out it wasn't) to do the job of distracting and destroying their global competition while they play the long game of what they want in the long run.

Two part post...

[Grand58742]

Part 2:

But what do China and Russia want? That's the question one has to answer. Global domination? I don't think Russia is hell bent on the idea of a worldwide socialist unification any longer, but being the power broker in Europe certainly is on the table. But they really have positioned themselves to control Europe if they wanted. All it's going to take is a "natural gas pipeline accident" of some sort during a really cold winter in Europe for them to be brought to heel. European leaders are smart enough to know their lifeline depends on a steady flow of oil and natural gas from Russia. Something Trump actually warned the Germans about a couple of years ago.

So, Russia has a lot more control of Europe than the average American (or European outside of the former Eastern Bloc countries) realizes. The UK is the only outlier in that group to be honest.

Does China want Taiwan and control of the Pacific? Probably, but they can't do it quite yet even with us out of the picture. But, consider this scenario...

All the sudden, we have another worldwide outbreak of something maybe a bit more serious than Covid. Highly transmissible and maybe a bit more virulent than the last one and the US shuts down yet again. The US Navy is put into harbor, the Army, USAF and USMC are non-deployable and quarantined and the economy grinds to a halt yet again. People hunker down and wait for things to pass. Eventually, the National Guard and some Reserve and AD units are mobilized to assist with the medical help (just like we saw with Covid). Then, you get that "spark" of whatever the useful idiots come up with à la another George Floyd moment where the situation turns even worse and the violence spreads from inner cities to the burbs and beyond.

More National Guard are sent to the cities to help restore order, maybe even a national lockdown gets put into place and the Administration starts talking Martial Law. You've now effectively taken the US Military out of the fight. China waltzes into Taiwan without any problem. Sure, the rest of SE Asia, Japan, South Korea and Australia will complain, but they can't project the power we can. Plus, they will be dealing with the same virus we're dealing with. NATO can't move for the same reason. They'll accept the occupation of Taiwan since China holds the Aces and Kings in regards to their economic survival.

And even if the United States does object, the Armed Forces are crippled by the same outbreak that brought our nation to its knees. Plus, it'll take just a few "delayed" shipments of medical equipment and supplies we depend on to shut us up. The US objects, the Chinese Ambassador goes to the White House and remind the President not to bite the hand that feeds him behind closed doors. Yes, we object in the UN and politicians get their three minute interviews on the networks, but we don't do a thing since the American people could care less about Taiwan at that moment since they are dealing with trouble far closer to home. Treaties be damned, we will be focusing on our domestic problems rather than caring what else happens in the world.

China reclaims Taiwan while establishing itself as the major power in the Far East without ever firing a shot at the United States in anger. We've already seen many of our so called representatives avoid calling out China since many are probably on the payroll or otherwise compromised. (here's looking at you, Eric Swalwell) Everyone knows the virus originated in China and it wasn't from a man eating a damn bat. Most people don't remember the Chinese trying to blame the US Army for releasing the virus (that story got buried quickly) nor do they know/care that the US partially funded the Wuhan Lab. Anyway...

Again, if you think major world powers didn't watch our reaction to the Wu-Flu with keen interest and continuing to watch the ongoing idiocy regarding the "Delta" variant, you aren't paying attention. They're also watching our own political process and are fully aware of how divided we are as a nation. It's going to be way easier for them to allow the useful idiots to destroy this country from within rather than striking out at us.

It's easy to remove the United States from the world stage without doing so militarily. You allow us to remove ourselves, Balkanize and then deal with the remnants from a position of power.