Our very first Commander in Chief said much the same thing as your brilliant ending. We have known this and experienced the cost of periodically forgetting it. Let’s not do it again. Bravo for this reminder!
A few years ago, the President of the United States entertained the President of China at his mansion in Florida. His beautiful wife wore a Chinese-style dress and his grandchildren sang Chinese folk songs. Today, we are seriously talking about a war between our two nations over an issue that had been dormant for fifty years. What happened?
If the editors of the Economist looked beyond their offices near Charing Cross they would see a once great industrial nation that ruled a quarter of the world held together by a great navy now reduced to one and a half islands off the coast of Europe. I suspect the Chinese laugh in disbelief when they read the Economist.
We "might" be able to prepare for the military side of the fight (if we would build drydocks, fund ship maintenance, and turn away from the "wokeness" that is strangling recruitment) but how can we "prepare" for the economic side when 90% of our pharmaceuticals (and the ingredients therein) come from China. Or 80% of the rare earth metals that go into EVs, solar cells, storage batteries. Or the flow of intellectual; property when we "host" tens of thousands of Chinese students (that ain't here to major in Gender Studies, East African Art from the 1800s, or Comparative Women's Studies). Or have a porous border that costs us 1/2 of the DoD budget every year in giveaways. What do we do when 123 PRC ships "invade" an island/reef complex off the Philippine coast? Why we issue a stern warning, that 'll show them uppity Chinese we mean business!!
All in all, I think they have fewer socioeconomic problems that we do. Our border/debt/cancel culture/TDS/election SNAFUing/pendfing impeachment - pick one - all have the capacity to sink us before the first shot in anger with the PRC. They just need to bide their time, and keep building ships.
Excellent ending, expanding the “Si vis pacem, para bellum”. Although the people who didn’t want to read the Latin version will ignore the English one too…
"Weakness and disappointment might lead the (insert country here) to turn inward, or equally may have it lash out in a last gasp before its strength weakens." Sounds familiar, just sayin'.
We can start by boosting our domestic shipyard repair capacity and open a 5th public Naval Shipyard. We must also stop decommissioning all naval vessels immediately and move east coast naval assets to west coast bases. The short term effect will signal to China that we expect hostilities in the western pacific. We cannot do much with our congress or our current executive branch in the way of moving the United States to a wartime footing. But that will happen as a matter of course when the bullets start flying. We must also seriously consider reinstating the draft. A massive public awareness campaign would be useful, except no one trusts the government any longer.
"The phrase "Si vis pacem, para bellum" is adapted from a statement found in Roman author Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus's tract Dē Rē Mīlitārī (fourth or fifth century AD), in which the actual phrasing is "Igitur quī dēsīderat pācem, præparet bellum" ("Therefore let him who desires peace prepare for war.").[1][2] The idea which it conveys also appears in earlier works such as Plato's Nomoi (Laws).[3][4] The phrase presents the insight that the conditions of peace are often preserved by a readiness to make war when necessary."
Many companies are already moving operations out of China to other countries that aren't quite as hostile to us. There are many deposits of raw materials, including rare earths, that are available outside of China, it's just a matter of getting set up to mine them, and then get them someplace that can process them.
Almost all of our issues here are political in nature.
As the PRC now owns most of our industrial assets and sweat equity as well as our president and his family I doubt Mr Xi is worried as much as you think... The american "leadership" built this rival brick by brick and dont think me or the kids in my extended family are gunna die for their mismanagment...
And it is the course/speed of being “poorly prepared” that the U.S. continues to maintain. This is assuredly a race to the bottom.
Our very first Commander in Chief said much the same thing as your brilliant ending. We have known this and experienced the cost of periodically forgetting it. Let’s not do it again. Bravo for this reminder!
A few years ago, the President of the United States entertained the President of China at his mansion in Florida. His beautiful wife wore a Chinese-style dress and his grandchildren sang Chinese folk songs. Today, we are seriously talking about a war between our two nations over an issue that had been dormant for fifty years. What happened?
If the editors of the Economist looked beyond their offices near Charing Cross they would see a once great industrial nation that ruled a quarter of the world held together by a great navy now reduced to one and a half islands off the coast of Europe. I suspect the Chinese laugh in disbelief when they read the Economist.
"unexpected" ? Sir, really....
We "might" be able to prepare for the military side of the fight (if we would build drydocks, fund ship maintenance, and turn away from the "wokeness" that is strangling recruitment) but how can we "prepare" for the economic side when 90% of our pharmaceuticals (and the ingredients therein) come from China. Or 80% of the rare earth metals that go into EVs, solar cells, storage batteries. Or the flow of intellectual; property when we "host" tens of thousands of Chinese students (that ain't here to major in Gender Studies, East African Art from the 1800s, or Comparative Women's Studies). Or have a porous border that costs us 1/2 of the DoD budget every year in giveaways. What do we do when 123 PRC ships "invade" an island/reef complex off the Philippine coast? Why we issue a stern warning, that 'll show them uppity Chinese we mean business!!
All in all, I think they have fewer socioeconomic problems that we do. Our border/debt/cancel culture/TDS/election SNAFUing/pendfing impeachment - pick one - all have the capacity to sink us before the first shot in anger with the PRC. They just need to bide their time, and keep building ships.
Excellent ending, expanding the “Si vis pacem, para bellum”. Although the people who didn’t want to read the Latin version will ignore the English one too…
"Weakness and disappointment might lead the (insert country here) to turn inward, or equally may have it lash out in a last gasp before its strength weakens." Sounds familiar, just sayin'.
We can start by boosting our domestic shipyard repair capacity and open a 5th public Naval Shipyard. We must also stop decommissioning all naval vessels immediately and move east coast naval assets to west coast bases. The short term effect will signal to China that we expect hostilities in the western pacific. We cannot do much with our congress or our current executive branch in the way of moving the United States to a wartime footing. But that will happen as a matter of course when the bullets start flying. We must also seriously consider reinstating the draft. A massive public awareness campaign would be useful, except no one trusts the government any longer.
There's nothing new in the world. From Wikipedia:
"The phrase "Si vis pacem, para bellum" is adapted from a statement found in Roman author Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus's tract Dē Rē Mīlitārī (fourth or fifth century AD), in which the actual phrasing is "Igitur quī dēsīderat pācem, præparet bellum" ("Therefore let him who desires peace prepare for war.").[1][2] The idea which it conveys also appears in earlier works such as Plato's Nomoi (Laws).[3][4] The phrase presents the insight that the conditions of peace are often preserved by a readiness to make war when necessary."
Many companies are already moving operations out of China to other countries that aren't quite as hostile to us. There are many deposits of raw materials, including rare earths, that are available outside of China, it's just a matter of getting set up to mine them, and then get them someplace that can process them.
Almost all of our issues here are political in nature.
If you want the best for the Chinese people, and you also want to undermine communism, ship a frillion Bibles to them.
As the PRC now owns most of our industrial assets and sweat equity as well as our president and his family I doubt Mr Xi is worried as much as you think... The american "leadership" built this rival brick by brick and dont think me or the kids in my extended family are gunna die for their mismanagment...
"A well prepared peace for a war that never comes is much less expensive than being poorly prepared for war that arrives unexpected."
Two sayings come to mind:
Si vis pacem, para bellum" and
The only thing more expensive than the best military in the world, is the second-best.
"A well prepared peace for a war that never comes is much less expensive than being poorly prepared for war that arrives unexpected."
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Bingo!
Hence cold war era Strategic Air Command's motto: "Peace is our profession"
China will be fine as long as they can keep the Mitch McConnells of the US in their pocket.
"Weakness and disappointment might lead the PRC turn inward, or equally may have it lash out in a last gasp before its strength weakens."
Same applies to the US.