whatshisface6 hours ago
The Soviet Union lost the Cold War because the US tricked the military-intelligence dominated Brezhnev[0] "administration" into diverting too much investment towards defense. The result was under-investment in infrastructure and agriculture that doomed the USSR over the long run. The US was able to sustain this because it had a larger industrial base.
Shall we foolishly end up on the other side of that? The Chinese can outproduce us in preparation for a war they do not actually want to fight, it would be terrible if they joined forces with our own defense sector to ransack the private sector and proverbially "eat the seed corn."
[0]He was installed in a coup against the defense-spending-critical Khrushchev.
p1esk6 hours ago
The Soviet Union lost the Cold War long after Brezhnev.
whatshisface6 hours ago
The Soviets stopped catching up to the west under Brezhnev, and never recovered from what Gorbachev called, "the era of stagnation."
p1esk5 hours ago
The Cold War was just one of many factors leading to the Soviet Union collapse. It was a lot more complex than “stopped catching up to the West”.
Source: I lived through it.
whatshisface5 hours ago
Perhaps it would be more accurate to say it was the biggest external influence on the collapse of the Soviet Union.
stogot5 hours ago
What makes you think China does not want to fight?
roenxi5 hours ago
Their society is rapidly improving. The less they fight, the better off they'll be. What will fighting get them apart from ruin?
It isn't a guarantee of peace, obviously. The same logic applies to everyone and there are still a lot of wars. But the warmakers tend to struggle to achieve the sort of results that the Chinese do and as a government they have a 50 year history of success through peace not war.
Tossrock5 hours ago
HDI growth in China is levelling out, and irredentist claims to Taiwan are a foundational piece of the CCP's ideology. The "strategic ambiguity" could be tolerated while Taiwan was relatively unimportant, but now that TSMC is one of the most important companies in the world, China is certainly at least considering war.
nradov5 hours ago
Their society is rapidly stagnating with a disastrous demographic profile. And since it's now a dictatorship the decision ultimately comes down to one man: Chairman Xi. No one knows what's going on in his head so we have to assume the worst.
roenxi5 hours ago
Them having very few youths is hardly an indicator of war is it? I was more concerned when they had a big excess.
shiroiushi5 hours ago
Russia is pretty short of young people these days too, and they're all too happy to throw the ones they still have into a pointless war.
roenxi5 hours ago
Yeah but the Russians didn't declare war because of their demographics. In fact, if you ask them why this happened Putin gave a whole speech [0] on this when he sent the troops in, which can be neatly summarised:
> We are talking about what causes us particular concern and anxiety, about those fundamental threats that year after year, step by step, are rudely and unceremoniously created by irresponsible politicians in the West in relation to our country. I mean the expansion of the Nato bloc to the east, bringing its military infrastructure closer to Russian borders.
It isn't obvious that China is dealing with the same sort of pressures in East Asia.
[0] https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/full-text-putin-s-declar... - although technically I suspect he was declaring Special Military Operation.
[deleted]5 hours agocollapsed
theowttty5 hours ago
Thanks to Ronald Regan, China is strong enough to fight the west
wakawaka285 hours ago
It is unfair to blame only one president for that, if any. The country was going to develop anyway. If Reagan was bad then what stopped Bush, Clinton, Obama, or anyone in Congress, from doing something about the policies that destroy our industries and make China rich?
Teever5 hours ago
What do you suggest we do to oppose the threat that China poses to democracy and the post WW2 status quo?
whatshisface5 hours ago
The same thing they're doing to pose the threat... trade with smaller countries, pressure them not to steal capital assets. But this reference to "democracy" is total propaganda, the US does not use only democratic allies.
Teeveran hour ago
Which country being the world power is more likely to lead to more countries being democratic -- The United States or China?
For whatever flaws the US has and the atrocities it has committed China isn't going to suddenly start spreading democracy around the world.
archagon5 hours ago
Democracy my ass. The politicians these people support and fund will try their damndest to turn the US into a China-style autocracy. Who will this arsenal be aimed at, I wonder?
Reubendan hour ago
"Only superior military technology can credibly deter war."
No. Various other factors including large alliances, trade risks, etc can deter war. And by far the biggest "deterrent" among our military technologies is nuclear weaponry, which relies on 1940s technology, thus undermining the essay's thesis that we need to innovate more in defense to prevent war.
With that said, many of the essay's suggestions are sound recommendations for improving the USA's ailing defense industry. I think that the consolidation of companies into a small number of conglomerates is particularly damaging.
p1esk6 hours ago
Anduril ad?
Log_out_4 hours ago
Lets have some fun and reboot the arsenal of democracy and ban bikes in dictatorships shall we?
https://imgur.com/a/paranoid-dictatorship-forbids-bikes-lk9G...
This is a refurbished bike pump gun, firing up and recycling remolded plastic pellets with botox inside. Easy to make anywhere .
To democratic, to low tech? not enough government handouts?
How about this? shotgunshells and 4 cameras and it can hop around cleaning trenches and houses? much more democratic arsenal?
How about coilgun gliderdrone artillery?
https://imgur.com/a/sad-ie8Ezsk
Cheap, decentralized, they sail all day over a area waiting for that call to fold and strike? Everyone can make and coilgun a guncotton glider. No takers? Anyone.
Arsenal of democracy my ass. Imperial restocking after selling out all values.
trinsic23 hours ago
LOL. Talk about an oxymoron.
ofrzeta5 hours ago
wtf is this? "Audio narrated by Palmer Luckey".
IncreasePosts5 hours ago
He owns Anduril, the company that published this site
akomtu6 hours ago
TL;DR The war machine wants more because other war machines get more.