you are a champion fighter, and have been world champion for the last 10 years. You see an up and coming fighter, going through the ranks, getting strong and stronger. he is taking performance enhancing drugs, stealing, cheating and doing whatever it takes to win.

Do you A: wait for him to be ready to fight you (by which time you will be older and he will be stronger/faster then he currently is
Do you B: attack him now while he is not yet ready to fight you.

this is true in some ways. If you go to Shanghai , Shenzhen example and you compare these tier one cities in China and maybe New York and LA , London or Paris. You look at their infrastructure , implementation of digital currencies and transactions, Public transport systems, airports, you will probably think so too.
The same can be said of comparing Tokyo , Singapore , Seoul to those Tier 1 cities in the West.

First point I agree in the whole; I might go further and say the gap in experience, capability and global positioning (bases and allies) is a huge determining factor in any outcome.
Agree completely a land war is not happening. If it does sadly happen it would be a naval/air mainly air battle.

Listen I think if China wants to take Taiwan by force. They will "take" it. Taiwan will be obliterated and Chinese cities could become targets for US cruise missiles.
Its difficult to see how a conventional war does not become a nuclear one if either side is pressed too far.

I suppose we'll only know in 3-6 months whether taking Bakhmut was a pyrrhic victory for the Russians or not. If the loss of manpower and materiel is as severe as sources are saying, then maybe it was, but we don't know what the Ukrainian casualties were defending the city.

I agree and if Chinese Cities become targets for US missiles it will no doubt escalate into a potential nuclear war.
And if that happens, opportunistic actors will start to team up or join up. It will be a disaster. And perhaps in order to protect the lives of their citizens, because at the end of the day the lives of American citizens are vastly more important compared to those of the Taiwanese or even Japanese ( technically speaking ).
Unless the United States is 200% sure they can obliterate the Chinese, they might be force to give up " Taiwan " . As of 2023 , majority of the world still stick to the " One China Principle " or " One China Policy " . They are somewhat like North and South Korea.

So the US will calculate very carefully if this is worth it by sending a couple of cruise into Chinese cities themselves. I highly doubt they will, but they will give the Taiwanese enough to send some into Chinese cities for sure.
And on the other hand they will also get together with their allies to sanction China like how they are sanctioning the Russians now. But how effective will that be? Therefore we need to study and see how effective are the sanctions on Russia at the moment. Because China is a completely different game.


Look , at the end of the day, I am 100% sure China doesn't want a war with the US and vice versa.
But the state of domestic and geo politics that is engulfing the USA right now is making it very very real that a conflict will happen. The only metrics is how large will that be .

This post was edited by Hamsterbaby on Mar 4 2023 02:18pm

Quite a tongue in cheek statement but I take it at face value
The counter to that point would be to point out the world leading education institutions are in the US and UK; China definitely has its own world leading institutions.



Its a great analogy and I totally understand a conflict of some level makes more sense for the US sooner than it does later; If China is able to continue its path of growth and development.
Anyone that says a direct conflict is likely in anything less than 25 years, by that I mean 2050 is completely wrong. In my opinion.



I'm not a in position to judge that or dispute it. It resonates with me. I have long seen a limiting factor of the "old world" of Europe and now of the United States is that existing infrastructure becomes outdated or degraded.
An example of this is Edinburgh compared to say Frankfurt. Germany was leveled in parts after world war 2 and was therefore rebuilt with a more modern template; Edinburgh has been in its existing state since the industrial revolution.
The roads and city layout were literally designed for horses and carts. Perhaps the same applies to comparing US/EU cities to modern cities in Asia.

This post was edited by Prox1m1ty on Mar 4 2023 02:20pm

Dude, I was replying to your pic which was showing how Poland, Romania etc. had joined NATO. No fuckery whatsoever was necessary to make those countries join.
Ukraine is a different case in that it is even closer to Russia than those Central European countries, not just geographically but also economically and culturally.

In Ukraine - unlike Poland, Czechia, Romania etc.! - there was indeed a sizable portion of the public that favored alignment with Russia over aligning with the West.

I am quoting that in regards to what mentioned. But I added in some ways, there is always that particular romanticism that Western Cities can provide that a lot of modern Asian cities couldn't.
At times, with romanticism, comes ideas , innovation , artistic revolution etc etc which I know, at least as a Singaporean, no matter how advanced or pretty my city is, can never have that sort environment.

This post was edited by Hamsterbaby on Mar 4 2023 02:27pm

I think it could lead to,
- A moral/momentum boost for Russia.
- Some argument over securing a supply route north to south in Russia favor.

It was undoubtedly massive casualties on both sides. Russia more so as they were attacking.

The war won't be decided over Bakhmut, far from it; A decision period is however imminent. Whether Russia chooses to press further west, where they choose to try that. Likely the Donbass.
And whether or not the Ukrainians attempt a breakout/ counteroffensive in another region; Potentially Crimea or South east Regions.

Its a valid point. What kusotarre did was attempt to move the goalposts. Basically "look China has advanced cities, their technology is equal or better the US, they would win a war with the US within 5 years"

Honestly right now the military capability, is not comparable; It is more accurate to say that if China avoids an internal disaster, they have the potential to match and rival the US militarily within a few generations.

This post was edited by Prox1m1ty on Mar 4 2023 02:33pm