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Well, I don't see how that could be true. The article suggests it is a bias from top command and recent history in the Middle East. Because a strong navy is cr
by anon84873628 4y ago
Well, I don't see how that could be true. The article suggests it is a bias from top command and recent history in the Middle East.
Because a strong navy is crucial to US interest. A staggering amount of the world's petroleum products flow through the Straight of Hormuz.
Likewise, the majority of China's energy imports and manufactured exports flow through the tiny Straight of Malacca (or else around the countless other islands of Indonesia). If the straight is blocked, they have about 90 days of fuel reserves before rationing begins. That's why China needs force projection in the South China Sea if they want any hope for a Taiwan invasion to be successful.
More generally, US protection of international shipping is supposedly the basis for the petrodollar system.
When it comes to Russia, defending the GIUK gap is also crucial...
- euroderf 4y agoThey've got the Silk Road Initiative going, but it seems teat it could not even begin to replace sea traffic in a crunch.
- anon84873628 4y agoIndeed. The silk road and new pipelines to Central Asian oilfields are crucial for China to diversify its energy sources, given the naval realities in the Pacific. So the western province of Xinjiang has become crucial... and hence the Uyghur genocide :-( The CCP, from its perspective, can't risk having a potentially rebellious ethnic group in such a critical region.