• circuscritic@lemmy.ca
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    4 months ago

    Oh come off it. I know you really don’t believe that a standard US administration would launch a nuclear first strike in defense of Taiwan.

    China is not the USSR, and the possibility of war between the powers has not historically been thought of in the same context as the Cold War USA vs USSR WWIII Nuclear Bonanza.

    • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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      4 months ago

      Not right off the bat, but I could believe they’d respond conventionally, and then it’s a bit of a slippery slope, isn’t it?

      I mean, it’s possible the two could wage some sort of polite “flower war” over Taiwan, but I don’t know for sure and don’t want to find out. I’d assume neither does China, regardless of revanchist butthurt.

      You’re right that it’s not the Cuban Missile Crisis anymore, but that’s exactly because now everyone is afraid of nukes in a way they hadn’t really grokked in that era. Very much including China, as far as anyone can tell.

      • circuscritic@lemmy.ca
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        4 months ago

        It’s not a slippery slope, it’s called an escalation ladder.

        Again, you need to stop thinking of this in the historical context of the Cold War and USSR vs USA. Well there are similarities, it is a very different situation for any number of reasons.

        • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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          4 months ago

          It’s not a slippery slope, it’s called an escalation ladder.

          And it’s spelled “while” not “well”. There, we’re even.

          I’m well aware of the vocabulary. Trying to make me look dumb over choice of phrasing is kinda a dick move.

          Again, you need to stop thinking of this in the historical context of the Cold War and USSR vs USA. Well there are similarities, it is a very different situation for any number of reasons.

          It is a very different situation in some ways, but I think the same military logic applies. When the US says “competition not conflict” what they mean is “let’s have a Cold War, but a polite, orderly one”. China is building missile silos like crazy, and the West is gradually severing off themselves from the Chinese economy.

          • circuscritic@lemmy.ca
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            4 months ago

            I used text to speech and didn’t proofread because that’s all this little dialogue warranted. You got me.