Comment by cjbgkagh

19 hours ago

A grifting military industrial complex is unable to defend Taiwan even if it wanted to as evident by the exceedingly poor showing with Iran. The disastrous reality of doing what was done is already with us. If the US didn't take that bait it could have made better choices that would have left it in a stronger position militarily long term, if it made a real attempt at re-shoring civilian manufacturing it could cross subsidise dual use technology, but instead we have corrupt politicians doling out concessions for kickbacks.

> If the US didn't take that bait it could have made better choices that would have left it in a stronger position militarily long term

Like what though? If the problem is that not going to actual war has enabled the MIC to be captured by grifters, then "taking the bait" and going to war should actually help improve that by showing up the grifters and giving us a chance to switch to making stuff that works.

  • > Pretending they’ll go to war over Taiwan and not doing it is an effective strategy for undermining the US.

    The bait is for the buildup that promotes the grifters.

    > An actual war would fix a lot of the grifting in the US as it would align interests

    We are in agreement. I made these points earlier in this chain.

    The Iran war doesn't count as the alignment of interest requires an actual threat of being defeated.

    • > The Iran war doesn't count as the alignment of interest requires an actual threat of being defeated.

      That's starting to sound a bit no-true-scotsman. If we need an existential threat to the US, that's not going to happen - realistically China conquering Taiwan or even building an empire around the Pacific would still not be felt as such a threat.

      3 replies →

> A grifting military industrial complex is unable to defend Taiwan even if it wanted to as evident by the exceedingly poor showing with Iran.

These two conflicts would be so different that i don't think it makes sense to draw this conclusion.