Ag_SGT said:
V8Aggie said:
Ag_SGT said:
jeremiahjt said:
Ag_SGT said:
Gbr1971 said:
If this is going to be our new foreign policy and I'm not saying it's a bad idea, why do we need to spend 700B on the military?
We certainly won't need as many soldiers, and sailors. As much as we've been spending maybe we can save 300 or 400 billion by cutting the pentagon budget.
If you think the Middle East is our main focus then I would agree with you but Trump and his team were smart to listen to military advisors. Those Middle Eastern countries can't project their power for anything other than isolated attacks on our homeland thru acts of terror. Our focus has shifted to equipping and training our military to return to large scale all out combat in a multi domain operation (MDO) against near peer countries. No ME country can come close to matching our force across all domains, but there are two countries that can, Russia and China. The military thinks that much like the collapse of the USSR, Russia is spending so much they project Russia to collapse in the next decade or so but the long term threat is China. In a war today, the only real advantage we have over China is experience in fighting, but Our entire fighting force has to transition from fighting these small battles thru out the ME in pretty much one or two domains and to being able to fight in all domains, air, sea, land, cyber etc. To do that it requires a lot of money and the they have us beat hands down when it comes to technology, hardware and in the cyber realm.need is there because unlike Iraq or Afghanistan they can project their forces across all domains and across the world.
Why do you think China has better military technology and hardware than us?
Because it is pretty much common knowledge and openly discussed in even unclassified briefings. It isn't that I think that, it's that the military recognizes that
Also - what makes you think China is remotely capable of projecting their military power outside of neighboring states?
Again, not what I think, I'm not conveying my opinion, I'm conveying what military leadership has put out there. But as to why, look around the world, look at South America, look at Africa, look at where the China virus ran rampant in Italy. China is everywhere, they have strategically inserted themselves into countries around the world. None of this is my opinion, not of this is my conclusions, I'm just conveying what I was briefed on in unclassified briefings. There is a reason our military is reorganizing and it isn't to fight a nation that only has the ability project their power to neighboring states
This is true, but you should qualify the "better military technology and hardware" to refer to in certain types. There is no question their warships are not better than ours, or Japan's. The claim they are building new submarines must be balanced against the fact that our submarine secrets are so closely guarded that most of ourselves don't really know their real capability and it is very doubtful they have pulled ahead in that field also.
Main problem seems to be a mass Chinese advantage in the pursuit of a `swarm drone' warfare possibilities, and probably anti-satellite. The danger is very real, but they don't have "better hardware" in all categories at all.
What they do have, and which might prove decisive, is the ability to absorb casualties that only Stalin's Russia could have matched, and we certainly can't now with our press.
Oh, and make no mistake, they absolutely can project their power. Just not in a fleet action yet. They are deeply entrenched even in Venezuela, and large parts of Africa.
FrioAg 00:
Leftist Democrats "have completely overplayed the Racism accusation. Honestly my first reaction when I hear it today is to assume bad intentions by the accuser, not the accused."