Subject: Re: Overmatched: the U.S. military
One of the Chinese strategies in the Chinese sea is to fire so many missiles and rockets hopefully the defense is overwhelmed, some get through and sink or disable the ship.
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This strategy can be watched nightly as Russia fires about 125 drones/missiles but also hoards them for a weekly (+/-) attack with 500-760 at a single time.

While our training may be better, China has a vast depth of personnel and equipment. Back during the Korean War they made it clear that both their shorter logistic train and their superior manpower made the challenges of a decisive defeat (desired by the "China lobby" who was funded by the Nationalist government in exile (Taiwan).

The recently released U.S. National Security Strategy (NSS) prioritizes our interests in the Western Hemisphere and our recent actions show a disdain for small boats which break our laws (whatever they happen to be).

At the same time, it reads like a policy designed to separate us from the obligation to defend Western Europe against the potential aggression of Russia, in exchange for profitable business deals between our oligarchs and Russia's and suggests our European "allies" boost there defense spending if they want their interests protected.

It also says it prioritizes deterring a conflict over Taiwan by building military strength and demanding more from allies, emphasizing a "favorable conventional military balance" to counter China, stressing no unilateral status quo changes, and viewing Taiwan as vital for controlling the First Island Chain, a key strategy to restrict Chinese Pacific access, requiring allies like Japan & South Korea to boost their defense spending.

This seems to me like we are now assigning spheres of influence. The US will take what it wants in the Americas (presumably including Canada and Greenland), Russia can have what it wants in Ukraine and, some day, in Europe. I expect that China will be able to justify blowing up ships in the South China Sea which irk them by pointing to our precedent. At some point, it will not serve Japan's and Australia's interests to get into a war with China over Taiwan - and I suspect that the US would back off from a direct confrontation as well.

Wee are rapidly recasting the world (and our society, in ways) to the policies at the turn of the 20th century and I'm guessing that, in order to replicate the "Gilded Age", we will no longer be able to afford foreign adventures.

The next few years will possibly be the most transformative that the US has had in nearly a century - good, bad or ugly remains to be seen.

Jeff

PS: Two interesting war books:
The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War, by David Halberstam
December 6: A Novel, by Martin Cruz Smith