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I think you have a point. On paper, they had lots of equipment, materiel (and I guess training too) but corrupt officials diverted the monies that were suppose
by mc32 4y ago
I think you have a point. On paper, they had lots of equipment, materiel (and I guess training too) but corrupt officials diverted the monies that were supposed to go for equipment and training and diverted them to their own interest. Moreover, given Putin's coy approach where he tried to pretend they were exercises and not actual war, gave these corrupt officials no time to try and scrounge up some of their ill-spent monies and prepare their military for actual conflict.
That said, I don't think the PLA is as corrupt and if they decide to have some exercises across the straits, they will probably be better prepared and equipped. so we had better have some contingencies for a second theater.
- kosherhurricane 4y ago> so we had better have some contingencies for a second theater. USA doesn't have a first theater yet--no troops have been mobilized into Europe. The $1T/year US military budget is insanely large. Chucking a few $B to Ukraine is not deteriorating anything. Supporting Ukraine is basically a cheap way to tie up Russia and use up old equipment that would have been retired anyway. US defense industry is known to keep making new stuff and retiring the old in order to keep production lines from dying. There is a very deep reserve for all that stuff. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CmXz8Qd9yw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CmXz8Qd9yw As for Taiwan, after the war started, Biden made removed the ambiguity around US involvement. And Taiwan has been preparing for a Chinese invasion far longer than Ukraine preparing for the Russian invasion (mostly since 2014). At this point, it's clear that if China invaded Taiwan, they'd have to do it entirely themselves. I don't think they're ready to take that risk.