Ludahai, DoL probably ain't worth it. Seems to support Ron Paul but supports peace at any cost in the Taiwan/China case, big government consequences be damned.
Supporting a non-interventionist and supporting peace. Damn, those positions are just so inconsistent.
He also seems to baselessly call people racists when it comes to China, even though he bemoans racial sensitivity in America.
There is inherent racism in America's policies towards the Third World. As many Americans have been indoctrinated to blindly support said policies they naturally adopt those racist ideas themselves. When people accuse China of theft, cheating, war-mongering, and deceit and these criticisms extend to athletes, private corporations, and the masses without any relation to the government I tend to see that there is very little reason to believe such views are about the government at all.
It a necessary element of any war footing that a country must not only demonize the leaders of the opposing country, but also the general population. The State must foster fear and suspicion of all individuals in the "enemy" country because otherwise people might question the morality of any policies pursued against that country.
When that State is populated mainly by non-whites such demonization takes on a racial dynamic.
Fair enough, but considering the point of view from a civilian, 1,500 ballistic missiles raining death down on their city within 10 minutes is somewhat analogous to the kind of imminent death aka cold war.
It is not really analogous, though that is the intended message. Naturally, the leaders of Taiwan and the United States are not going to be completely honest and note the general non-threat of conventional ballistic missiles to Taiwan's general population. They also are not going to mention China's "no first-strike" policy to assuage concerns about nuclear war. For both the United States and Taiwan to maintain their current policies requires that people not question whether the ballistic missiles are an existential threat.
AS for using ground based missile platforms to launch attacks on Taiwanese defenses, doesn't it make more sense to use mobile platforms? The Taiwanese basically know where the Fujian based missiles are. Any any attack will involve massing of troops, so the Taiwanese will basically have a heads up on when the attack is coming. IMO it makes more sense to use non-Fujian based assets to attack Taiwanese defenses. Or at least in conjunction with them.
China's short-range ballistic missiles can be moved along the road and would take at most half an hour to be fired. An attack with ballistic missiles could be launched within a sufficient timespan to keep people from noticing. Also, as I noted before, knowing there will be an attack is not going to help Taiwan because China can launch devastating strikes rapidly with little warning. No preparations Taiwan can make would be sufficient to prevent their defeat and if Taiwan were to launch the first strike they would practically be wrapping Taiwan up with a nice, little bow for China. However, I also challenge the idea that China would need to undergo considerable mobilization in order to attack Taiwan. They have within their present capabilities the deployment of 10,000 airborne troops anywhere within China in two days, which means they would have no trouble deploying the same amount of troops to Taiwan in such a time span. China has enough airpower within range of Taiwan to destroy its defenses right now. Its fleet of submarines can easily be positioned within range of Taiwan with minimal warning. China need not give Taiwan any advance warning before striking.
Taiwan relying upon hardened highways is rather idiotic as those will be targeted. Sure you have this asset, but when it's on the hit list and you cannot defend it, it's not really a usable asset.
Agreed.
Without nukes, there's no way. Considering the assets that China has bought from Russia, mainly guided missile cruisers, the naval forces Taiwan has are outclassed. Furthermore, the increase in quiet subs and the sheer number will overpower Taiwanese submarine assets.
Taiwanese "submarines assets" are useless hunks of junk. At best they would make for good target practice. As it stands Taiwan has no new submarines on order either.