SaintZero, I do not believe that. Not China, not Russia would be willing to take sides with the US for reasons I pointed out in my preevious post. The best the USA could hope for would be much condemnation and no action. The Russians and the Chinese might hate each other but they do not want the USA any more powerful than it already is.
Kosovo was a special case. Russia saw it as it’s duty to protect Serbs much as we would protect Canada, Western Europe, or Australia–we are culturally and ethnically similar to those groups just as the Russians are to the Serbs. Plus, the Russians viewed it as their own backyard being bullied around. IIRC, the Chinese came into the picture because we accidentally" bombed their embassy.
China vs. US would be an entirely different monster, as it would come down to what Russia thought was in its best interest. They’ve lived with an aggressive US military, the last thing they want is an aggressive Chinese military right next door, especially considering the state of the Russian army.
NATO now includes Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary and it is worth remembering that Russia is already playing an interesting game of cat and mouse. This from the acting President in March:
“Russia might regard its accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as possible at some time in the future if the alliance undergoes a serious transformation and grants Moscow equal and full membership, Putin told an interview published in the just-released book “In the First Person. Conversations with Vladimir Putin.”
A little poem on NATO expansion, Shakespeare it ain’t:
You are more right than you may know. The Chinese were shocked at the US success in the Gulf War. Think about it…China’s BIG advantage is 1 billion people. They can human wave any army into the ground even if their army is only armed with pitchforks. Unfortunately this tactic is worthless if your enemy sits out of reach and pummels you long range. Chinese generals looked around and figured (rightly) that a change was needed.
As a result China has begun switching to smaller units (and the tactics that go with it) as well as acquiring equipment to make their forces more mobile. On a satellite pass during some Chinese wargames the US was surprised to see a large number of hovercraft and other amphibious vessels. China has a way to go yet but up till now they didn’t have a prayer of invading Taiwan because they lacked the equipment. Obviously that’s changing and once China has a credible threat to wave at Taiwan and the US things could get interesting.
It’s clear China sees itself as heir apparent to the vaccum the former Soviet Union left behind. To really step up onto the stage China needs an ability to project power ala the US. When that happens we may have another Cold War on our hands. I’ve heard excellent arguments for and against a national missile defense system but protection from Chinese warheads is a very compelling argument for such a system (assuming it could work). China would either have to live with it or be forced to siphon resources to building more and better missiles to remain a credible threat to the US. That, of course, means they have less resources to pump-up their standing army.
Don’t laugh…this policy put the USSR into the poor house and ultimately made them collapse. Who knows…maybe it could work again.
My opinon is that Russia knows they can live with the US. China might decide to reinvade, with a massive army. Russia’s army isn’t in good shape right now.
Mebuckner,
Ok you consider it joke but I don’t get it. Mind clarifing?
Tempting as it is to reply “Yes, I do mind clarifying”, I suppose this will help pad the old post count…
Bill, have you ever seen the bumper sticker that says “They’ll take my gun when they pry it from my cold, dead hand”? Actually, I thought up this sig during your thread.
Buckner,
Ok, now I guess I figured out why you wrote the sig line. But I think this little joke is funnier…
You know the story of the three bears - papa bear, mama bear and little bitty baby bear. Papa bear says, “whose been eating my porridge?” Mama bear says, “whose been eating my porridge” then baby bear goes “aaaarrrffff”(I guess that is the way you type a puking sound)
Um… not to stir up things, but this link Here Tells of one Minsk, sold to South Korea in 1995, then to China in 98. Now it’s an amusement park.
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/row/rus/1143.htm
it’s off the abcnews story I posted above. Yikes! India has one, China the another.
This article says the Kiev was sold to China, ABC calls it the Minsk. The Admiral Gorshkov was sold to India. No word on the fate of the other two.
But you could probably buy it cheap. 