This is, unfortunately, true. The follow on question, especially to elected members of Congress like J.D. Vance , is to then ask what they’re doing to rebuild that industrial capacity. We can’t just lament the problem & do nothing to fix it.

This is misinformed and unserious thinking about the threat that China poses to Taiwan and U.S. interests:
1. Yes, China does not want a war with the U.S. However, that doesn't mean they won't use force to get what they want if they think that's their only option...

I swear no one reads history anymore. The most egregious ahistorical hot take I've seen this weekend:

This is a ludicrous notion. Just as I don’t want to see US personnel turned into walking targets in Gaza to placate the politicians need to “do something”, I don’t want to see allied troops consigned to a similar fate either.

All they’ll be is attractive targets for terrorists.

In the generation that won WWII, this probably resulted in a verbal reprimand at most. Today he'd be court-martialed.

European social democracies amassed huge welfare systems last 30 years because they relied on someone else for security (USA), someone else for manufacturing (China), and someone else for cheap commodities (Russia).
What do you think will happen to this model without all of it?

This type of aggression against US assets used to be rare. Because America's enemies were terrified of what they knew the US response would be.

Under increasingly weak and feckless US leadership, the consequences have all but disappeared, and so America is attacked regularly.

Good. Disentangling PRC influence and access from TikTok after ByteDance divested would have been a genuine chore and an ongoing security issue. Better to excise this cancer from American life entirely.

China has the world’s largest Navy—& soon to be the world’s largest Air Force, U.S. Navy Adm Aquilino told Congress.

“The magnitude, scope, & scale of this security challenge cannot be understated.”

Today, the U.S. Air Force is the smallest it’s ever been, writes Defense News:

Fair warning; this one is brutal.

The EOD folks can tear the technical side of this apart in detail, but what immediately struck me was the total lack of effort by the unwounded survivor to treat the casualties.

GDP percentages remain one of the worst metrics to use for this debate. The question that matters is force generation.

“If your country has to go to war tomorrow, what can it do so with?”

Despite a massive lobbying & influence effort by the PRC, Congress passed & Pres. Biden signed legislation requiring ByteDance to divest from TikTok by January 2025 or be banned in the US. This is an excellent development.

A post election deadline indicates the politicians…

I’ll take “Completely Foreseeable Charlie Foxtrots” for $1000, Alex.

i24NEWS English is reporting some equipment damage and one individual with minor injuries.
i24news.tv/en/news/israel…

The U.S. Ambassador to Niger, Kathleen FitzGibbon as well as the Director of Strategy, Engagement and Program for U.S. Africa Command, Major General Ken Ekman will meet tomorrow with Members of the Niger Military Junta in the Capital of Niamey to discuss the “Orderly and…

BIG NEWS!!! State Dept Vedant Patel confirms that the U.S. has already provided Ukraine with long range ATACMS at the President’s direction.

#StandWithUkraine

The continued reduction in flying squadrons is a massive problem. As the Russo-Ukrainian War is proving (again); mass matters.

If the nations of Europe believe they’re in a pre-war period, as many of their officials have indicated they do; radical, society altering rearmament should be the order of the day. 5-10%+ of gdp for defense, enormous reindustrialization projects, promotion of childbirth, etc.