13 Comments

I admit that I find it hard to believe that China would think that even a lame duck Trump would order an attack on China.

Trump is a bully, and like the bully he is, Trump generally avoids picking fights with anyone who actually is able to fight back. That is why Trump backed away from war on Iran, and China is certainly able to do much more than Iran as far as fighting back goes.

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I doubt most of East Asia will be willing to back the US if push comes to shove with China. This is just another instance of the US picking a fight it cannot win…but that enriches a select few.

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I am not a fan of Elbridge Colby or his mindset. Look at the website of his organization, the Marathon Project. It's named after a "great" battle of Greek antiquity. It's logo is a Spartan helmet. The message he's sending is "I watched the Zac Snyder movie 300 and it made me feel strong" despite the fact that the United States has no intelligible relationship to Ancient Greece.

The basic mindset of Colby is "we need to have great wars against great adversaries in order to be part of history, just like the heroes of ancient Greece." This is an idiotic mindset that sees war as an end in and of itself. Then again, we are living in a country that has been aggressive and expansionist like no other polity in world history. Colby should remember that Hitler had a fetish for the Spartans too.

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As far as China is concerned, Taiwan is a province with a high degree of autonomy. How would independence benefit Taiwan? For the US to start selling arms to Taiwan would only be interpreted as meddling in internal affairs, which China would never accept it. Selling arms to Taiwan is not defending Taiwan.

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