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You can't rely on Chinese companies to make the tanks and rockets you intend aiming at China. Car manufacturers serve many purposes. Aside from keeping the UAW
by ggm 1y ago
You can't rely on Chinese companies to make the tanks and rockets you intend aiming at China.
Car manufacturers serve many purposes. Aside from keeping the UAW membership onside, they are a strategic buttress for an emerging future war risk.
Australia maintained subsidies to Ford and GM for onshore production precisely because of this. And they stopped when a strategic realignment made successive governments decide the risk didn't justify the expense. A decision they may now be regretting.
- tehjoker 1y agoSince there’s no good reason to do any of that, we should absolutely lose that capability since to use it is to abuse it
- moi2388 1y agoDeterrence is a very good reason, and the reason we’ve had peace in the western world for as long as we have.
- StopDisinfo910 1y agoIntegrated markets and commerce is why we have had peace in the western world. The very things the current American head honcho is tearing apart. We have had very little peace in the rest of the world in the meantime between the colonial wars, the various proxy wars of the Cold War, then the numerous stupid adventures of the modern America and now Russia wanting to be an empire again.
- moi2388 1y agoI don’t think integrated markets were the cause. There was plenty of integration between Ukraine and Russia in the oil and gas infrastructure for example. (Nuclear) deterrence is why we’ve only had proxy wars instead of direct wars
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago> Since there’s no good reason to do any of that It's 2025. We're still asking what happens when one group has lots of guns, tanks, fighter jets and missiles, and the other doesn't? Also, there is a difference between stockpiling arms and maintaining the ability to produce them if necessary.
- contrarian1234 1y agoWar with China.. ya'll are nuts. The American zeitgeist is completely poisoned and insane. Listening to this stuff from the outside is kind of horrifying. War with a nuclear armed country ends with a nuclear winter for the whole planet. There is no preparing for war with China unless you want everyone dead (which I'm starting to suspect a lot of people are okay with) This seems so anachronistic.... When was the last war where tanks were important..? Car are made using components from all around the world... How would you even make a tank in a Tesla factory?
- pjc50 1y agoThey're not even winning the war on Portland.
- number6 1y agoIn The 2022 Invasion of Russia into the Ukraine Tanks played an important role in the offensive and the counter-offensive especially around Kyiv, Mariupol, Severodonetsk, and Avdiivka
- contrarian1234 1y agoAre they still a factor? I thought they quickly were put out of the picture once drone warfare was ironed out. Haven't heard of tanks in Ukraine for the past couple of years
- Someone 1y agoThis is from last month: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/09/08/world/europe/ukraine-russia-war-drones-tanks-military.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/09/08/world/europe/... It describes how tanks were modified to protect, first, against attacks from the top, and then, from drone attacks from all sides. They claim “But they remain important, especially for trying to take and hold territory. With their heavy firepower, they will continue to have a role in attacking, defending and supporting the foot soldiers of the infantry.”