Posted: 7/18/2002 5:09:30 PM EDT
| Should we even bother defending or helping them your thoughts please. Dragunov's posts with the PLA pictures got me thinking about this. CRC |
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We should call the bluff of those yellow reds by recognizing Taiwan as an independent nation. It's by far and away time we stopped pretending they are anything else. Besides, it would be great to spit in the eye of those bastards for what they did to our P-3 crew! |
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I seem to remember hearing something in a history lecture about the fact that Taiwan is the "true" China, after the reds kicked them off the mainland, and that the US recognized only them until sometime in the 50s? Of course, I could be wrong. I did sleep through an awful lot of my classes. [sleep] FOTBR |
| China's navy and army used to be pretty much incapable of mounting or maintaining an amphibous assault on Taiwan- has that changed? Our landing on china's mainland would be a nightmare, but how effective are the chinese outside their borders (other than nuking Taiwan of the face of the earth that is)? |
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It has been my understanding that they are in the process of building up their Navy considerably. My Fiance's Father was a pilot in Taiwan's Air Force - he now pilots commercial airlines in Taiwan. In High school, Taiwanese are all trained how to properly fire a rifle - my Fiance learned when she was 17 (she is 26 now). Eric |
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Well... Taiwan is (in addition toi being our ally) quite vital to our economy. After all, if you removed all the 'Made in Taiwan' stuff from your house, you wouldn't be looking at this site ('cause your PC would probably have no motherboard, maybe no RAM, etc...). That said, the US should be ready to defend them (which basically means 'Keep the PLA from crossing the strait').. As a previous AR15 article noted, the Chinese are quite interested in countering our carriers (although their strategy seems to be 'Buy some russian equipment and wait for the F-14 (with it's 'unique' missile capabilities) to be retired'), but their current navy is way too weak to accomplish this. As for the Chinese copying our infantry uniforms, if we get in an infantry battle with the PLA, someone goofed... Any US/Taiwan vs PRC conflict will be won or lost in the straits of Taiwan, and my money's on the USN to win, hands down (4 carriers + escorts vs a frigate navy (alright, a soon to be big frigate navy, but no crusiers/cariers none the less, IIRC...)... And how nice of the chinese to buy the very ships and missiles that our navy was built to kill (russian stuff)... Judging by that 'China gunning for US carriers' article, they bought a nice side order of russian antiship tactics along with it (swarms of big high-speed missiles). At least we've allready got the counter-tactics and equipment in service... If we're going to pul an 'Israel' (since Israel being a nuclear power is a direct result of us giving them the material to do it. It's the only thing in 'Sum of All Fears' that's accurate) on Taiwan, we should do it quick, since that may start a war once China believes they can counter our navy... Do it now, and we just get some more flack from the euros for being hypocrytical... And while we're at it, sell them some missile defense hardware... Not exactly like they can't afford it... |
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We should drop Israel off our scope, let them fight their own war (they have nothing to offer for us)... get back in bed with the Saudis'/UAE/Kuwait (so we can have some real-estate), and defend Korea like crazy. God knows you can't get good american made electronics anymore... Keep my prices low baby. And BTW, No shit. I believe this. What says "made in Israel" in your house? Be realistic. |
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Quoted: We should drop Israel off our scope, let them fight their own war (they have nothing to offer for us)... get back in bed with the Saudis'/UAE/Kuwait (so we can have some real-estate), and defend Korea like crazy. God knows you can't get good american made electronics anymore... Keep my prices low baby. And BTW, No shit. I believe this. What says "made in Israel" in your house? Be realistic. Agreed, we need to drop Israel like the red headed step child that it is |
| FWIW, I think China will wait until we really have our hands full elsewhere and some gutless coward like Klinton infests the White House. At that point they will announce they are going to "welcome" Taiwan back to the motherland and that they will accept millions upon millions of dead Chinese if we are willing to accept the loss of all our west coast population centers. Adios Taiwan! |
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Quoted: China's navy and army used to be pretty much incapable of mounting or maintaining an amphibous assault on Taiwan- has that changed? It's changing. There have been several threads on this board in the last two weeks about it -- do a search for threads with the word "China" in the subject line. This got me concerned enough that I emailed a friend who is over there teaching. He wrote back that nothing has changed recently, relations between China and Taiwan are thawing and improving, and that China wants Taiwan because of the economic assets there and so wouldn't destroy the place. China is a threat to Taiwan, obviously, but they aren't going to level the island. They want Taiwan to capitulate and be absorbed. In short, I think the current hawkishness in the American press is just the fad of the day. |
