Nuclear war with China or Russia a real possibility stratcom commander warns
.
Although this is Fox so take it with a grain of salt.
Friend I mean this in the nicest possible way but we're basically going to be living in a time of brinksmanship and geopolitical aggression for some time to come.
Nobody is going to get nuked but you're going to be seeing stories like this and false attacks and airspace breaches almost daily.
This seems to be causing you a lot of stress, maybe just turn off the news.
Oh really when?An article on the US and the Arctic. Written before Biden was sworn in as POTUS so there's some stuff that's old, even if it was published last week.
Leveraging Allies and Partners
x4
"It's amusing and sad that these same people who negotiated this terrible situation with Iran are once again lamenting it."
"Neither side in Burma is exactly a white knight..."
It's propaganda.
Edited by kkhohoho on Feb 3rd 2021 at 10:52:41 AM
Hell, even the headline is a straight-up lie. He says if Iran keeps lifting restrictions, it being a nuclear power 'could get down to a matter of weeks'. That's assuming it keeps lifting them and plowing through, or if it's seriously trying to be a nuclear power, or if Biden doesn't try to make another deal.
Russia and China are barely mentioned.
Edited by kkhohoho on Feb 3rd 2021 at 11:11:13 AM
By the by, the guy isn't a "STRATCOM commander"; he's a staffer at the National Interest think tank arm that Nixon founded.
Edited by eagleoftheninth on Feb 3rd 2021 at 5:13:31 AM
One day, we will read his name in the news and cheer.Protip: Security issues are complex. None of us here understand all the relevant aspects. But if you're going to share an article/clip like this, a good question to ask yourself is: do I get the gist of what's being said here?
Because the interview had basically nothing to do with Russia or its nuclear capabilities, and only discussed China through a weird tangent on the Myanmar coup. Most of it is about Iran's nuclear proliferation capability, which as I understand it is a rather partisan issue in the US and a major sticking point for the Trump admin, which had a vested interest in painting it as a failure of the Obama admin.
Speaking of which:
This is what information literacy is about: we need to understand the claim that's being made, the evidences offered, and whose viewpoint it's being delivered from. And that applies to COVID, climate change or whatever topic we find to be outside our immediate expertise.
Yeah I was a debate geek in high school, why do you ask
One day, we will read his name in the news and cheer."FYI, he's something of a minor celebrity, being an author of two international best-sellers (one based on his experiences during the Great White Fleet's voyage, with approval from the Department of the Navy, of course) and the winner of gold medal in wrestling at the Stockholm Olympics 1912. In addition, he can speak five European languages - English, French, German, Spanish, and Russian.
Hah, you know what, the most productive activity he could engage in, in terms of gathering operational intelligence, is go to parties.
No really. Back in the day (and today as well) people invite foreigners who share their professional and/or social background to parties, because they are exotic and interesting and draw more people to the party. I would imagine that a celebrity American naval engineer would be unusual enough that the German naval community would find him highly entertaining.
And then, well you know, mix well informed people with alcohol and the result tends to be leaks. If the historical accounts of diplomats and spies are anything to go by, he could learn all kinds of things just by saying "You know, we Americans never figured out how to do X" ("X" being something of operational interest).
I'm done trying to sound smart. "Clear" is the new smart....Okay, I never thought of that and that's awesome.
In order to survive under the likes of Ernest King, MC kinda developed a talent for ass-kissing (in addition developing his own capabilities, of course) and sweet-talking people into doing or saying things. Oh man, this should be gold, thanks for the suggestion!
Whenever someone says a nuclear war with China/Russia is imminent, I tend to put the source into the "unreliable" category from then on.
I still maintain a US-Chinese conflict is one of only two possibilities for a shooting war between nuclear powers that I could realistically see happening (the other one, FWIW, is India/Pakistan again.) Mind you, "possible" isn't remotely the same thing as imminent, and anyone trying to argue that the coup in Myanmar could lead to one is either scaremongering or just plain nuts.
If that's even what it says, anyway - from the sound of it I'm not going to waste my time with a click.
Has any of you watched Generation Kill? What did you guys think of it? We studied that for American Studies, and it was very interesting, but I'm not sure how accurate it is.
Hope shines brightest in the darkest timesYou have no idea how happy you just made me by mentioning that title!
I both watched the series and read the original book. Lot of the events in the book can be cross checked by One Bullet Away, a retelling of more or less the same journey but by Lt. Nathaniel Fick (or Cpt by the end of the book). So I think it's safe to say that the book and the miniseries is pretty accurate, although not to a documentary level.
As for me, the book was one of the few books that forever changed my perspective on a subject. It was my first exposure to lives of soldiers mixed with absurdities and gritty, dull mundaneness. It sure made me think a lot.
I definitely enjoyed the book and the series and I recommend aforementioned One Bullet Away as well. I should read them again!
Continuously reading, studying, and (hopefully) growing.

Question for an alternate history/military story, the one that I mentioned a couple of pages back.
The main character is an ambitious US naval officer (Annapolis class of 1906) who wants to climb up the ranks. After getting a Medal of Honor during the Battle of Veracruz, he realizes that he is severely lacking in engineering expertise, at least compared to his peers such as Raymond Spruance. Since he can speak German (which he learned from Chester Nimitz), he decides to follow Nimitz to Germany and Beligum to learn diesel engines.
I have two questions.
Would a US naval officer have been able to enter Germany in 1914, during WWI? Nimitz went to Germany in 1913, right before WWI broke out, but my MC was stuck in Veracruz up until October of 1914.
Also, once he arrives in Germany, MC recognizes that this war will grow much larger in scale and America will get roped into it. So he decides to do some intel gathering there in the spare time. Now, what are some independent espionage (if it can be called that) a navy lieutenant would've been able to do there? What with the war ongoing, I'd imagine security would've been rather tight. One thing that I could think of is checking out journals and libraries to check out publications on the likes of U-boats?
FYI, he's something of a minor celebrity, being an author of two international best-sellers (one based on his experiences during the Great White Fleet's voyage, with approval from the Department of the Navy, of course) and the winner of gold medal in wrestling at the Stockholm Olympics 1912. In addition, he can speak five European languages - English, French, German, Spanish, and Russian.
Edited by dRoy on Feb 3rd 2021 at 10:33:02 PM
Continuously reading, studying, and (hopefully) growing.