@hawkeye10,
hawkeye10 wrote:It could come very soon as China asserts is dominance over the South China Sea. We are not in any position to prevent it, but we a treaty bound to show up for war over it. We shall see if we do.
I disagree on our ability to prevent it. The US military can do major damage with our existing weapons, and we are developing new weapons that will allow even greater potency.
For instance, we are developing Mach 6 hypersonic cruise missiles that can scream into China in the opening minutes of a war and take out all their early warning systems without the Chinese military being able to do anything about it.
We are also developing medium-range unmanned bombers that can take off and land on aircraft carriers. Any dreams that China might have of damaging our carriers with their anti-ship weapons will soon fade when our carriers start conducting their bombing missions while parked off the coast of Wake Island.
hawkeye10 wrote:Obama plays into this BTW: Word has it that the Chinese are going around telling everyone about how the Americans are so feckless, they claim that they will protect you but look at how rarely Obama comes around. Where is the military, their largest outpost around here which is in Japan is constantly in jeopardy from the Japenese, and is way too small to do anything anyways.
We have an Air Force base and a Marine airbase on Okinawa. We have a Marine airbase at Hiroshima, and a Navy base at Nagasaki capable of servicing submarines in-theater.
Japan controls a string of islands (and a corresponding undersea ridge) that runs from Japan to Okinawa to Taiwan.
With a combination of subs and air patrols, we could impose a complete blockade of the East China Sea without even leaving Japanese territory.