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[-] b00m@kbin.social 173 points 1 year ago

So if Iran goes full monty and China invades Taiwan while Russia is grinding down its population on the Ukrainian front, we'd have WW3 on our hands I reckon.

[-] DessertStorms@kbin.social 118 points 1 year ago

That war is already underway, we just won't be calling it that until after..

[-] foggy@lemmy.world 49 points 1 year ago

We won't be calling it that until the US has a draft.

[-] Vqhm@lemmy.world 50 points 1 year ago

Drafts have not won recent wars. Wars are not PVP.

The US has made an effort to maintain a highly trained and extremely specialized fighting force. It can take over a year of training in certain specialities before you even get to the last school house.

There's a focus on making advanced weapon systems easy to use through human factors analysis and that's slowly transitioning into killbots that do everything but pull the trigger and need a human in the loop to authorize the kill.

During WWII there was a massive increase in manufacturing which was beyond the enemies reach. If you got drafted to do anything it'd likely be work in a plant making drones or something logistical such as transporting drones.

[-] scarabic@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago

Yes the US tries to make soldiers the operators of weaponry, not the weapons themselves as in earlier times. Treasure spent on weaponry stokes the military industrial complex. Benefits to dead veterans families, not so much. Also civilian deaths undermine public support for whatever bullshit they are doing.

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[-] scifu@lemm.ee 42 points 1 year ago

Not really a world war until 10 countries are actively involved with 2 of them USA and China.

Right now usa is passive and china is not involved.

[-] lanolinoil@lemmy.world 25 points 1 year ago

We're in the lend and lease phase right now

[-] idealotus@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago

I could see it being called a proxy world war. There's enough concentration of where support is coming from.

[-] ieatpillowtags@lemm.ee 34 points 1 year ago

I think that’s just called a Cold War. We didn’t invade Vietnam because we actually give a shit about Vietnamese people, it was a proxy war with the USSR

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[-] MudSkipperKisser@lemmy.world 92 points 1 year ago
[-] curiousaur@reddthat.com 84 points 1 year ago

It was never meant to be covert. That doesn't work as a deterrent. The headline means quiet as in not announced, not as In nobody knows.

Like, if you quietly left a party. It just means you didn't say goodbye, it does not mean that you're still hiding in the building.

[-] MudSkipperKisser@lemmy.world 36 points 1 year ago

Oh but I DO hide in the building after I “quietly” leave. Then I just like sit at the breakfast table in my “borrowed” jammies and ask what’s for breakfast as my gracious host rounds the corner in the morning

[-] curiousaur@reddthat.com 15 points 1 year ago

Ah, that explains your confusion.

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[-] reverendsteveii@lemm.ee 68 points 1 year ago

Is there any active or potential war the US isn't paying for?

[-] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 62 points 1 year ago

The US is paying because it needs Taiwan. If Taiwan didn't have value for the US, it would have been overrun by China a decade ago

[-] reverendsteveii@lemm.ee 33 points 1 year ago

israel and ukraine as well. it's no coincidence that right next to a powerful country (or, in israel's case, a bloc of countries) that the US is unfriendly with there is a client state whose entire existence depends on Western funding.

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The bulk of the US economy is based on taking money from working people and then consolidating it to billionaires that run defense corporations. So "paying for" it's basically just an engine for making rich Americans more rich.

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[-] pineapplelover@lemm.ee 47 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Well Taiwan can either go with the US or China. They've been wanting to stay independent from China for a while now so I don't think it's much of a surprise.

[-] deleted@lemmy.world 38 points 1 year ago

Almost all countries other than USA, Russia, and China have to pick a side.

[-] stevehobbes@lemmy.world 31 points 1 year ago

I mean Russia is pretty close to needing to pick a side.

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[-] Gabu@lemmy.world 40 points 1 year ago

Good. Even if nobody likes 'murica, their weapons work well enough to deter China from doing something stupid.

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[-] ObviouslyNotBanana@lemmy.world 40 points 1 year ago

So quietly that no one knows about it

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[-] JdW@lemmy.world 39 points 1 year ago

Quietly? They have been doing so for at least 40 years. Everybody knew and knows.

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[-] dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 points 1 year ago

BBC found out about it. It aint that quiet.

[-] afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world 20 points 1 year ago

Give them a bunch of nukes and biological weapons and after they arrive send a message to the PRC

"Just a fyi, we sent them a 100 but they only received 80. Be a real shame if Taiwanese operators had planted them in randomly selected cities on the mainland."

It will be hilarious way to end the world.

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[-] ArugulaZ@kbin.social 19 points 1 year ago

...and Israel, for that matter.

[-] jonne@infosec.pub 34 points 1 year ago

At least Taiwan isn't an apartheid state.

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[-] TheBlue22@lemmy.blahaj.zone 15 points 1 year ago

I mean, yeah, why wouldn't they?

Should we just let China carpetbomb Taiwan instead?

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[-] autotldr@lemmings.world 12 points 1 year ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


When US President Joe Biden recently signed off on a $80m grant to Taiwan for the purchase of American military equipment, China said it "deplores and opposes" what Washington had done.

It is sending a clear message of strategic clarity to Beijing that we stand together," says Wang Ting-yu, a ruling party legislator with close ties to Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen, and to US Congressional chiefs.

He says the $80m is the tip of what could be a very large iceberg, and notes that in July President Biden used discretionary powers to approve the sale of military services and equipment worth $500m to Taiwan.

But Dr Lai says it's possible to make educated guesses: Javelin and Stinger anti-aircraft missiles - highly effective weapons that forces can learn to use quickly.

A war-gaming exercise conducted by a think-tank last year found that in a conflict with China, Taiwan's navy and air force would be wiped out in the first 96 hours of battle.

The focus will switch to ground troops, infantry and artillery - repelling an invasion on the beaches and, if necessary, fighting the People's Liberation Army (PLA) in the towns and cities, and from bases deep in the island's jungle-covered mountains.


The original article contains 1,687 words, the summary contains 202 words. Saved 88%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

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this post was submitted on 06 Nov 2023
708 points (97.8% liked)

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