US conflict in the Americas

[FairAndUnbiased]

Friendly reminder that the military disparity between the US and Venezuela is magnitudes greater than that between China and Taiwan. Venezuela has a garage-industry air force with outdated handful of Su-30s and F-16s, little to no domestic weapons manufacturing capacity, and - from what the US strikes have demonstrated - little to no command & control capabilities over its military. Taiwan, on the other hand, has some ~400 fighter aircraft comprised of extremely-modernized F-16s, Mirage 2000s, and its indigenous F-CK-1, a domestic military industry that has allowed it to stockpile thousands of cruise missiles, an integrated ADS, and a functioning navy with some fairly modern vessels. I would also presume that Taiwan's command and communications are better-protected than that of Venezuela.

An operation against Taiwan's leadership and military command would look very, very different in scope and design from what we're seeing here in Venezuela.

Taiwan mostly flies F-16As, Mirage 2000s with mismatched missiles (can't fire AIM-120s) and a trainer level F-CK-1.

It uses literal WW2 era ships.

 

[FairAndUnbiased]

I agree, I think China needs to take that very seriously and work for countermeasures to deal with that.

But I have the personal feeling that the Trump, mostly Rubio, "doctrine" is to abandon the world, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, to take over the Americas. If you think about it, the region has the energy resources, the minerals and the cheap labor to the point that US maybe won't need anything from Asia or the Middle East. With that and moving IC manufacturing from Taiwan to the US and IC packaging to the US, Mexico or the Caribbean the US could cut their military alliances all over the world.

I think is pipe dream because a lot of countries in Latin America are not that close to the US and the big powers in the region have their own agendas. But gives that sensation.

US can't remain a global power in the Americas because most humans and economic activity are located in Eurasia.

 

[tokenanalyst]

It's all by design, they weakened Venezuela for years with sanctions and destroyed their ability to really put up any fight.

Infiltrated basically every level of politics and military so understand it through and through. They had their eyes set on capturing Venezuela's resources well before Trump. Trump is only continuing long planned US strategic moves. He isn't some outsider or Russian stooge.

Once the country was broken with sanctions and economically kaput, people are easier to buy and exploit. All the way through, there's nothing Venezuela or Russia could/can do. Such is the balance of power and Western leaders understand their strength is in their ability to coordinate.

No, the big problem with Latin America is that they don't know how to fight a real war. Different from East Europe, Asia, the Middle East. Latin American countries never dealt with the concept of modern warfare and real war, everything was and is guerrilla warfare or narco violence low intensity conflict. Most country are friendly to each other, dispute usually don't escalate beyond skirmishes. Most country don't understand the concept of air defense, missiles, rockets, anti-ship warfare, Manpads, drones and so on. The defense industry is minimal at best. Countries like Pakistan have to deal with a powerful neighbor like India. That is why the Pakistani Military Industrial Complex is one of the best in the world. That doesn't exists in the Americas, real war is something that only the US do in the continent.

 

[tokenanalyst]

US can't remain a global power in the Americas because most humans and economic activity are located in Eurasia.

I think the Trump regime is signaling that they are looking to be more a regional power with some global presence. Modern trade doesn't require military presence everywhere.
Personally I don't think is possible for the US to unwind the empire, they too overextended and too far gone to correct course.

 

[Tomboy]

China ran an empire for 3000+ years bro. There's one commonality among Chinese enemies. Just ask where the Xiongnu, Xianbei, Abbasid Caliphate, Mongolia and Manchuria are now.

The correct term is that there has been some sort of empire/country/sovereign entity in the general region that is known as China in the modern era for the past 3000 years. People keep confusing it as if a single empire under a single system ruled for that long. The CCP is just another system/entity out of many that ruled this region before it. Also, the Mongolians also successfully taken over China and ruled for 100 years, so they seem to be a pretty poor example to point out.

 

[FairAndUnbiased]

No, the big problem with Latin America is that they don't know how to fight a real war. Different from East Europe, Asia, the Middle East. Latin American countries never dealt with the concept of modern warfare and real war, everything was and is guerrilla warfare or narco violence low intensity conflict. Most country are friendly to each other, dispute usually don't escalate beyond skirmishes. Most country don't understand the concept of air defense, missiles, rockets, anti-ship warfare, Manpads, drones and so on. The defense industry is minimal at best. Countries like Pakistan have to deal with a powerful neighbor like India. That is why the Pakistani Military Industrial Complex is one of the best in the world. That doesn't exists in the Americas, real war is something that only the US do in the continent.

true. It is not a matter of money. Example: North Korea, Vietnam, even Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. The #1 determinant of whether a society is ready for war is whether they can accept immense hardship indefinitely for victory. Indians and Pakistanis, just like North Koreans, have outright said they're willing to eat grass to win. Are Venezuelans willing to eat grass to win?

 

[smug]

But I have the personal feeling that the Trump, mostly Rubio, "doctrine" is to abandon the world, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, to take over the Americas.

I think the Trump regime is signaling that they are looking to be more a regional power with some global presence. Modern trade doesn't require military presence everywhere.
Personally I don't think is possible for the US to unwind the empire, they too overextended and too far gone to correct course.

I don't think that's true. They recently released a white paper that clearly stated they wanted to be involved globally.

 

[FairAndUnbiased]

The correct term is that there has been some sort of empire/country/sovereign entity in the general region that is known as China in the modern era for the past 3000 years. People keep confusing it as if a single empire under a single system ruled for that long. The CCP is just another system/entity out of many that ruled this region before it. Also, the Mongolians also successfully taken over China and ruled for 100 years, so they seem to be a pretty poor example to point out.

And now Mongolia is a small entity with lower population than in had in 1200, with Ming successfully overthrowing them and then invading Mongolia itself.

A culturally contiguous empire is not just some "general region". Thanks.

 

[siegecrossbow]

According to CNN, they caught Maduro while he was sleeping. Was there absolutely no resistance whatsoever from his guards?

Probably his guards sold him out.

 

[ismellcopium]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2007454785109115213

Based LMAO. Eagerly anticipating SMO phase 2, insha'allah going a bit less "smoothly" this time, perhaps assisted somewhat by the ease/overconfidence from Venezuela.