China will never go to war with anyone unless there is profit in it. That said, this nails it:
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getting more money to buy more stuff. And the lobbyists for the military industrial complex are helping, with enthusiasm, behind the scenes
Agreed. Their military flexing is mainly to tell others not to fuck with them and for both internal and external propaganda amongst ASEAN nations they want to build ties with. And itās not only targeted at the US.
Seriously, just think about it.
State owned companies want to make money investing in Disney movies. Nobody wants a war lol.
Remember that old google gag where you clicked on the āI feel luckyā button under the search form after you typed āFrench Military Victoriesā and it led you to a āno results foundā page with a link that read ādid you mean āFrench Military Defeatsāā? The same can be used for China.
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Bingo. The Chinese suck at war, track records matter.
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The citizens canāt be bothered either. They just want to make money, watch their TV soaps, go to the gym, play video games, raise kids and try to run over you with their cars when youāre attempting to cross the road.
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Stereotyping works!
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Shit, Iāve hailed a cab to get to a destination which was less than a 10min walk away because I didnāt want to cross 2 roads to get there. The cab driver was dumbfounded.
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While I agree with your statement, I would just like to point out that this very same argument was often repeated in the years preceding the outbreak of WW1 in Europe.
The belief was that due to the fact that economies of European powers were extremely intertwined war was virtually impossible, and that the pressure from industrial and financial leaders would rein in the politicians.
Well, they did reach (and capture) Moscow under that Corsican upstart, and before that defeated the British at Yorktown with some help from colonial tax dodgers and smugglers.
Itās worth mentioning that for five centuries the French were the epitome of land military power. At the ending of the movie Alatriste, when Aragorn himself is facing certain death, the hopelessness of his predicament is emphasized by the fact that heās facing the French, the then-Borg of land warfare.
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Well, historically speaking, France has probably been the best performing country in all of warfare 
.
Curse you people, you made me stick up for the old enemy!
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And also that no one would willingly declare war on anyone due to the complicated series of mutual defence pacts etc. The system was thought to be risk free, but it had one hell of a fat tail.
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Youāll always have Argentina on your CV.
And the Argos wonāt forget that in a hurry!
It isnāt such a good reference as is often assumed - Blessed Margaret T only levelled the overall scoreā¦
Thereās still innings to play yet.
Speaking of Thatcher, Charles Moore has completed his 3 part biography of her, itās the definitive work on the subject for those interested.
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I took it as sarcasm.
Thatās conventional warfare. Post nuclear era, superpowers are not going to war -itās a scare tactic with other goals in mind. Cuban missile crisis was the last, āgreatā potential superpower showdown; imo itās all saber rattling for political purposes now.
Yeah, I mean, itās possible, but certainly not probable. Maybe in the tiny chance that the economy of China suddenly tanks and they get desperate.
Current forecasts state that China may overtake the US within the next 15 years or less and the ones running the military are pretty different from the top guys in the CCP.
ALL the high ranking guys in the military bought their positions or acquired them through nepotism. Also, being a normal soldier is a vocation thatās generally looked down on. At least by people from my generation, like city dwellers look down on rural people. And their military has no combat experience.
Haha. I donāt know much about the history of France other than a little bit of old legal stuff. Just brought up the old google gag to say it should have been China.
@loppar Give us a Russia/Ukraine update when you get a chance.
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Russia will possibly (likely?) launch a full fledged invasion of Ukraine with the goal of securing a land bridge to Crimea in the next month or two.
Europe is paralyzed with internal problems, namely the vaccine rollout fiasco and the US is embroiled in domestic issues, while the domestic problems are piling up for Putin. Navalny is dead set on his martyrdom and the Russians in general are somewhat pissed that the supposedly miraculous Sputnik V vaccine is being handed out in a soft power drive in Europe and Africa while they are not getting the jabs.
Per some reports in the Russian opposition sources, the Kremlin tried to coordinate with the Chinese - the idea being that the PRC would stir some (minor) shit around Taiwan simultaneously to wrongfoot the Americans in two important theaters.
Apparently, they were coldly rebuffed by the Chinese as Beijing has the upper (economic) hand and is eagerly awaiting (indirectly) all those US stimulus checks.
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