crabtastic said:
Don't you mean a negative sum game?
Hold on. I'll just check with my current advisor on such affairs...
...
Well, Mr Guinness says, you may be right. But this is his 4th attempt - or my 4th attempt - or my 4th Guinness - or
... Oh you get the point!!!!
crabtastic said:
I don't know whether China wants Taiwan, as much as they want the issue of Taiwan. It's a good way of bucking up support for the CCP by appeals to naitionalism, thus allowing the CCP to forget about the peasantry and the proletariat and concentrate on getting itself rich.
I agree completely. Recently spent 12 months on a UK campus full of Chinese students. To man and boy, they were fully indoctinated into the theory that Taiwan was shortly to return to the fold. They hoped for a peaceful return but expected a military intervention from their behalf. They tried to impress upon me that it was the duty of every 'true' chinese to ensure this happens. However, when questionned, not a single one of them was prepared to be in the first wave of landing assault craft - they all had prior engagements elsewhere!!! Which I think tells the very same story that you have come to believe.
crabtastic said:
The only problem that can arise is if the CCP overplays its hand. With the nationalist issue they could be riding on the back of a tiger. At least, if T6's report is gen, the US is at being discreet about its force posture. SSNs are a lot less visible than a CVBG or two and not as likely to raise as many hackles. (Of course, one could postulate that carrier-based aircraft are more useful in occupying and controlling a desert battlespace than submarines- and thus might be in high demand.

)
Not very discrete if T6 is telling us, is it? But, your point is well noted. Since the end of the Cold War, it seems to be the norm rather than the exception for negotiating sides to gradually force each other into corners from which the only escape is military action. NATO backed Milosevic into such a corner, but in doing so, marched themselves into an opposing corner with the same view. Roll on 4 years to Spring 2003, guess what? However, I doubt it will get that far with China, for the very same reason it didn't with the Soviet Union.
BTW. Who have you upset to get the Oxygen Thief label?