Fenton
DP Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 17, 2012
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- Political Leaning
- Conservative
Russia has nothing
to gain from a war with the US or West. That of course does not dictate that their weapon capabilities aren't dangerous, but their interests are largely aligned with the West when it comes to many things, peace included. While Russia will wage some form of economic warfare, actual hot conflict is really something they'd try to avoid. And yes, Romney was off his rocker when he said the biggest threat to the US was Russia.
So? We regularly run our Ohio classes well within range of their cities with enough nuclear firepower to turn every major Russian city into glass. Furthermore, the stealthy Virginia class lets us deploy SEAL teams directly on to foreign soil without anyone knowing. And we still have our B-2 bombers capable of dropping multimegaton warheads into the densest, most defended cities on the planet.
Try to get some perspective for a change.
So they're tweaking us. Besides, that doesn't even make sense. Those bombers are slow and easily taken out. If they really want to take Guam out, they'd use a submarine to a launch a nuclear tipped cruise missile. Russia is trying to get our attention, but it's hardly the real weapon they'd use. Essentially that's a one way trip for the bomber. With a submarine, the chance of an actual successful attack is much higher. Furthermore, Tupolev Tu-22M is a superior anti-US bomber than the bear is. Launching from Vladivostok, the Backfire is faster and much smaller target than the bear. And within the maximum range cruise missile, they are within range. They'd still come scary close to Kadena and the mere fact of a backfire flying would raise serious red alarms all through out the region, but that would be the aerial choice of platform, not the bear.
Furthermore, based on ABC news, we knew about these bombers as soon as they took off from North East Russia. Japan had eyes on them with their own fighters. Bear bombers are slow, easy to track and easy to destroy. Takes lots of guts to actually get in to one of those. Bears are far more useful for standoff weapons when they have escorts, as recon and as experimental platforms: essentially the same stuff we use our B-52s for. Both the Bear and the BFF aren't really considered for front line combat.
A P-700 has more than twice that capabilities. And can be launched from a stealthy submarine that has a much better chance at evading multiple layers of US defenses. On top of that, the extreme range of the Kh-55SM gives Anderson about 3 hours to prepare. US missile defenses aren't that good at taking out supersonic missiles, but 3 hours is plenty of time to setup missile interceptor batteries. The Granit gives Anderson about 20 minutes. It's pretty clear what they'd use if they were serious about destroying US equipment. So we have your scenario which requires bombers to get through multiple layers of defense, survive, then launch a series of missiles that will take about 3 hours to get to their target destination over sending a submarine to launch a much bigger payload per missile that goes double the speed and gives Guam only 20 minutes to actually prepare and evacuate. Conclusion: Russia is tweaking us because they can. Oh Putin, what a joker. The most direct route to hitting Guam would be to overfly one of the largest US airbases on the planet: Kadena. Yeah. Not going to happen.
Pretty much. You seem worried about the wrong things. Besides, we really don't need that many nukes anyways.
Is that why terrorists attacks are down after we invaded Iraq? Oh wait, they're not.
How is that even related? China and Japan have been complaining about that for decades. Furthermore, Japan has territorial disputes with every neighbor it has. South Korea has been fighting Japan over its own set of stupid islands. Taiwan and Philippines both have their scraps with Tokyo over islands. What is causing the flare is up is the Japanese government's decision to buy the islands from its Japanese private land owners. If they had not done that, no one would be talking about this. Amusingly, the authorization was meant to reduce the problem as the Japanese government incorrectly believed that once they had purchased them, because they were now officially government property, China would back off. This has frankly nothing to do with the US and several US officials have quietly said that we will not go to war over "damn rocks."
That has been starting since we funded the Mujahedin in Afghanistan all those years. And after Britain and France back stabbed their Arab allies after WWII. Neither have anything to do with what you are saying. In fact, our over reaction to 9/11 has directly benefited them as the cost to put it on was less than a few million and the economic damage and related debt is well into the trillions.
You again seem worried about the wrong things.
Neither of which will happen. China undergoing its 10 year change of power and starting a war? Not going to happen. And Independence in Taiwan is no different then it was last couple elections. Furthermore, China will take Taiwan the way it's doing now: economically. Taiwan is so tied into the Chinese economy that given enough time, Taiwan will eventually revert to PRC control. It makes no sense for the Chinese to actually fight a war over Taiwan as long as Taiwan does not openly declare independence.
And the missile will fail epically. Furthermore, NK uses its nuclear program to legitimize its government because it frankly has nothing else. Iran and North Korea share the desire to live. Using nukes ends their regimes.
You should read less Tom Clancy and more Foreign Policy. Iran cannot win a conventional war with Israel. And Iran knows that any nuclear first strike will instantly put the Arabs against them and see a dozen Israeli nukes fly back at them. Iran knows it cannot track the Dolphin class submarines Israel has and that have harpoon cruise missiles with nukes on them. Iran's nuclear arsenal is tiny compared to the Israelis.
Besides, if China really wanted us dead, they'd simply just sell our bonds at a fire sale. That would seriously damage their economy, but if they were die hard enough, that would be better than starting a war.
No, you think that because you have really no idea what you are talking about.
Perhaps you should take off your tin foil hat. You really have no idea what you are discussing. Something tells me you seriously underestimated my knowledge on these subjects.
Ok my perspective, I dont read Tom Clancy BTW, is based on an actual occurance that you seem to be all to willing to mitigate because it fits your personal preference.
An additional nuclear detonation by N.Korea wasn't in the latest Tom Clancy book, it happened. Also seeing how under your idiot President things have gotten much worse with 2 new Islamic threats rising up under Morsi and Lybia, the incompetence and lies that surround Benghazzi, Iran improving on their ballistic missle technology and moving full steam ahead on uranium enrichment and N. Korea setting off an additional nuke please understand why I think your blind allegiance style of International affairs is so full of $hit.
Not to mention the rising tension between China and Japan.....which I mentioned. All these things are substantial, not imagined or out of a book.
Whats ironic is that as your side throws around the tin hat cliche you also argue that we're currently in the midst of a economic recovery and the current economic or foreign policy disaster that confronts us is the fault of ONE MAN who hasn't been in office in 4 years.
I tend to ignore the input of someone that argues that an exploding debt, 8,500,000 million jobs disappearing, massive injections of capital by the Fed, a rising dependent class, a shrinking economy , and rising taxes with rising unemployment is the way to fix the economy.
