America Could Be Headed for WAR With No Equipment or Supplies
I’ve been writing about the U.S. supply chain for months and pointing out how the American food supply chain has been disrupted by COVID restrictions, natural disasters, and (intentional?) mismanagement.
Eventually, a significant food shortage here inside the country will occur. For those who choose to ignore these warnings and fail to prepare accordingly, times will get very hard very quickly.
But it’s not just the food supply chain we need to be worried about.
In July 2017, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order concerning the security of U.S. supply chains caused by decades of deindustrialization, Free Trade, and lopsided trade policy. Interestingly enough, President Joe Biden signed a similar Executive Order in February.
It is not just gadgets and consumer products that are the concern here. The U.S. Military’s ability to procure needed supplies to arm and support itself in military conflicts is of great concern.
As Loren Thompson of Forbes points out: “The moment is fast approaching when America’s military will be unable to equip itself for modern warfare without relying on Chinese suppliers. So if the war is with China, there’s a good chance the U.S. military would be defeated.”
America’s deep slide down the industrial rabbit hole
Some Americans, particularly younger ones not acquainted with the terms “Free Trade,” might be aware just how advanced the American industrial collapse has become.
Thompson writes:
Just take a stroll through Best Buy BBY +0.7% and see if you can find anything made in America. Virtually every electronic device of interest, from smartphones to flat-panel televisions to laptop computers, is now made in Asia—especially China. And less than 2% of the shipping that delivers such devices to U.S. shores is conducted on vessels made in America. China increasingly builds (and owns) the ships.
. . . . .
It is not hard to dream up excuses for why America might be lagging in smartphones or container ships. After all, don’t we design the smartphones here, and don’t we still build the most advanced warships?
But the more you investigate the extent of America’s industrial decline, the easier it is to see is why that slide might be leading to a security crisis.
For instance, the Pentagon’s current list of top-priority technologies for equipping the future force, in descending order of priority, includes (1) microelectronics, (2) 5G communications, (3) hypersonics, (4) biotechnology, (5) artificial intelligence, (6) autonomy and (7) cyber.
The U.S. isn’t a clear-cut global leader in any of these technologies any more. It may have an edge in two or three of them, but its lead is fast evaporating.
There are many reasons why the U.S. isn’t the global leader in technologies anymore
One of those reasons being the Chinese government is working as hard as possible to take advantage of every opportunity. China is also graduating eight times as many students in science and engineering as the United States. I would also add that these students are trained in science and engineering, primarily unencumbered by the constraints of the ideologies of leftist social justice and racial equity.
Despite Trump’s rhetoric on China, the U.S. trade deficit in advanced technology grew every year of his administration. America’s industrial decline is often hidden in the statistics, obscured by the high-tech service industry’s success with leading companies like Amazon and Google.
Biden’s Executive Order shows just how far American manufacturing has fallen
Forbes reports on the four most urgent points set out by Biden’s Order as follows:
- Semiconductors. Semiconductors are ubiquitous in advanced technology, from smartphones to smart bombs. A generation ago, about a third of global semiconductor production occurred in the U.S. Today. However, the U.S. still accounts for a third of global demand, its share of production has fallen to 12%, and virtually all packaging is concentrated in Asia. U.S. semiconductor companies such as Nvidia NVDA +6.9% and AMD have increasingly outsourced fabrication to Asia. The world’s emerging leader in advanced processors is Taiwan Semiconductor ON +4.7%, which is a key supplier to China and is located on an island claimed by Beijing as part of greater China.
- Batteries. High-capacity batteries used in electric vehicles are another area of supply chain concern identified in the president’s order. The U.S. only accounts for about 12% of global output, while China accounts for 75%. U.S. production will undoubtedly increase in the future, but for now, companies like Ford are dependent on offshore sources. It is instructive that when General Motors GM -0.5% decided to build domestic battery manufacturing capacity, it teamed with South Korean company LGChem—which has much more experience in the manufacture of lithium-ion batteries.
- Pharmaceuticals. The United States is heavily dependent upon imported drugs, particularly generics. And while many U.S. generics are manufactured in India, a close look at how they are made reveals that almost invariably, the chemical precursors originate in China—by far the world’s biggest supplier of such ingredients. However, you have to turn to sources like the Wall Street Journal to find this out because until the coronavirus pandemic came along, the federal government did little to track how reliant the U.S. had become on China’s pharmaceuticals. It is not hard to see how such dependencies could lead to a medical care crisis during a future war.
- Materials. Rare earth elements are heavy metals with vast applications, from computer memories to lasers to aerospace components. The U.S. was the world’s largest producer until the 1990s when predatory pricing by government-backed Chinese sources drove other producers out of the market. Today, the U.S. and other consumers of rare earth elements are heavily dependent on Chinese suppliers. The Financial Times reported on February 16 that Beijing was contemplating a cutoff of rare earth metals to U.S. defense contractors, which would hobble the development of numerous high-tech systems, including missiles and electric combat vehicles.
Biden is right to focus on bringing the manufacturing industry back to the United States
Whether you are a supporter of Biden or an opponent, he’s right to focus on bringing the manufacturing industry back to the United States as an issue of National Security.
It is indeed a national security issue.
This website also discussed that the fact most of our vital medications are manufactured in China is very dangerous to our nation’s well-being.
In the past, wartime inspired extreme levels of ingenuity as people sought creative solutions to resolve the issues our military was facing. But now…we’ve given all the solutions, the factories, the facilities, and the materials to our potential enemies.
It’s also an issue of living standards for the American people. Seventy years ago, American’s were the only ones in the history of the world to produce a larger middle class than poor. Americans didn’t accomplish this through Free Trade but tariffs and an “America First” mentality.
If the question is what is to be done to bring American jobs back to America, then the answer is simple – enact protective tariffs across the board and watch those jobs return to American shores.
America is big enough and powerful enough to do this. It did before and can do it again. What remains to be seen is if the current administration desires to bring those jobs back. If it does, will it be allowed to do so?
Let’s hear your thoughts in the comments.
About Robert
Robert Wheeler has been quietly researching world events for two decades. After witnessing the global network of NGOs and several ‘Revolutions’ they engineered in a number of different countries, Wheeler began analyzing current events through these lenses.
This will simply be one factor in losing the next war some of which will be fought on our home turf.
The inability to properly man the American military due to progressive agendas will factor in as well.
The dramatically increased Chinese military along with stolen and replicated equipment is also a threat.
The Chinese are also recognizing the need for logistics to move and fixing it.
All the while we are down drawing ours, keeping them in a perpetual state of war wearing out people and equipment with no direction or objective. Flip flopping with every administration and going after those soldiers who actually fight because they don’t think they way someone somewhere wants them to by turning them into criminals and drumming them out of the military in disgrace.
Our standards are no longer met and have been reduced to nothing for certain groups whereas they maintain.
20 years in Afghanistan.
It’s the billions of dollars derived from those beautiful Poppy fields.
https://funker530.com/video/china-declares-war-with-us-inevitable/
Well those REALLY SMART Generals ……………..
Lesson ONE — Protect your supply lines …..
Is it any wonder the PENTAGRAM has not won a war in 100 years?
“Protect your supply lines”
the decision to de-industrialize was “political” – sort of. the citizens and politicians knew what was happening, and they did it anyway, and the generals saluted and said “yes sir”. should the generals have staged a coup to prevent it?
The Berry Amendment was enacted to specifically protect us against this kind of thing. But where there is no industrial base, as Mr. Wheeler has highlighted, Our problem lies there. We have to be content to pay a slightly higher price for US made goods to combate cheap unethical labor practices of other countries. Until Americans are willing to do so, our base will always be weak.
“pay a slightly higher price”
double. at least.
during inflation while wages are not increasing.
can’t happen.
“watch those jobs return to American shores”
won’t happen. can’t just whistle up an industrial base, it takes decades to build. when the factories closed down years ago all the machine equipment was sold for scrap and all the skilled operators went to pasture without training any replacements. it’s gone.
remember perot? this was all hashed out in the 1990’s, the american people voted to deindustrialize and buy cheap stuff made elsewhere, and … here we are.
two years ago you could get a 40-foot chinese shipping container delivered wherever you wanted it and THEY would pay YOU $20 to take it – it was cheaper for china to do that than to ship an empty container back to china. can you imagine the industrial pressure behind that?
They love to make all kinds of “Laws” so I would say make one that says on a incremental time scale to avoid shocking the system …. If you don’t make it here, you don’t sell it here. See what happens then.
You are absolutely right!
Thanks for posting this. Yes, unfortunately China has over a billion “workers (slaves)” and they enticed and killed off a majority of numerous industries in all major countries by making their products WAY cheaper. People prefer cheap, or it is all they can afford, so they give their money to Chinese-made products instead of more expensive local-made products. My husband and I vowed years ago to try to avoid buying anything made in China, and to only buy local where we can. Depressing when you walk into K-Mart, Walmart or any major chain and 80-90 percent or more of the products are made in China. I got excited over heaters for our house because I found an Italian brand AND an American brand. The catch? Oh, the designs come from these countries BUT the physical parts are made in, you guessed it, CHINA?!! I have had numerous chats with businesses and they are also just as disgusted with this, but they have to continue to buy because that’s what they can get. It has affected our supply chains dramatically, and if we go to war with China well, good luck on getting ANY appliances, home products, clothing, etc. Don’t believe me? Go into your local store and check everything you buy. Personally, at least I know my food is local because I buy ONLY from local farmers. And the work done on my house goes to trades people that DON’T use Chinese products. I clearly specify that and I’m more than happy to pay double. I go without goodies like a big fancy TV, the latest phone, games, etc. But I have become prepared for not depending on Chinese crap. Too bad everyone doesn’t adopt this attitude. I know it’s impossible for everything, but just start by mapping out local goods at least, so if SHTF with them you’re prepared, or somewhat prepared, for the fallout. I don’t believe a word the Chinese government says AT ALL. And as for the Chinese on our shores, I understand why they left China. The horror stories I’ve heard just make your mouth drop open. They aren’t the enemy, the government there is and they are doing their best to put the rest of the world at their feet, and they figured out a way to do it without firing a shot.
The American people did not vote to de-industrialize. It was Bush and Clinton–who held the same views on NAFTA–who conspired to do that. Clinton deceptively said that his administration would not outsource jobs to Mexico. Clinton saw the popularity Ross Perot was garnering with the public over the issue, and then co-opted his message. And when Clinton was elected, the Bush and Clinton administrations worked TOGETHER to bring about “trade” (which it wasn’t; it was exporting the middle class jobs) into fruition. They had been cooking up this New World Order scheme for years, as it turns out.
“I would also add that these (chinese) students are trained in science and engineering, primarily unencumbered by the constraints of the ideologies of leftist social justice and racial equity.”
no, but they are weighed down by communist and confucianist ideology of “reality is what we say it is, the boss is a superior man and if anything goes wrong it’s your fault for not understanding him correctly”. this is a big factor in all their production and is the primary, almost sole, factor in their monetary and financial policies. right now they get around that by sheer dogged pedantic copying of anything western (watch the movie “red sea”, great movie, except for the chinese faces you’d think they were american troops and sailors and equipment and ships), but it does play a role and will play a greater role as they gain power.
“The United States is heavily dependent upon imported drugs”
1 american in 100 is on ssri’s – mood-stabilizing drugs. these are highly dependency-forming. 1 in 10 that go off of them turn homicidal. 35 of the last 36 mass shootings in the united states were by individuals who were on or had just gone off of ssri’s. when this supply is interrupted then divide your local population by 1000 and you can expect that many people to go homicidal in the streets.
I have been on & off SSRIs over the past decade & have never even felt homicidal let alone been homicidal. They are good mood-stabilizers to help one cope with mid-term adversities. Each time i have tapered off, i have felt surges like electric shocks to my lower arms. Its unpleasant, might be a reason patients wud stop the tapering off, that might be why you say addictive. But if the patient persists, one becomes a full-functioned member of society.
It is really a moot point at this juncture.
We are being taken down from the inside. Until that changes nothing else matters.
Traitors and America hating ” americans”, are the problem.
They will divide this country until there is no “country” left, but just a bunch of independent states or
several regional nations.
China does not need to make War with us, we are at war with our selves. We are on our own path to destruction. All they need to do is wait.
A Civil war scenario to complete the destruction is being orchestrated, as we sit here.
So I suggest you prepare for that and all it will entail.
“All they need to do is wait”
unfortunately that wont’ work for them – they’ve copied us very well including our financial self-destruction, so well that they might fall apart before we do.
The Chinese may not have time to wait. Part of the reason our food prices are spiking is because China is buying up everything they can get their hands on thanks to a disastrous food growing year. The CCP know that the people may rise up in revolt if they go hungry, so the CCP may send its army here to get food.
So a beggar thy neighbor is the solution? Didn’t work out so well in the last depression.
when you have food for three people and there’s ten starving people trying to get it, “begger thy neighbor” is the only game-rational approach to take.
” The United States is heavily dependent upon imported drugs, particularly generics. And while many U.S. generics are manufactured in India, a close look at how they are made reveals that almost invariably, the chemical precursors originate in China—by far the world’s biggest supplier of such ingredients. ”
My concern is counterfeiting of drugs & dilution by bad substances ( fentanyl ). We have already lost many pets to melamine contamination in foods. I personally prefer to get my prescription drugs in those little foil packets rather than bulk bottles. The labelling on each individual foil reassures me…altho there has been a lot of chinese counterfeiting even of certification holograms on powerbars & extension cords.
The US military is now “woke.”
Tucker Carlson made fun of maternity flight suits on a recent broadcast.
The Pentagon went ballistic.
The US military should save their outrage for the threat posed by China.
(I served in the military for 23 years so I can agree with Tucker Carlson and make fun of the perfumed princes in the Pentagon.)
The military was having issues finding young men physically fit enough to pass the entrance exam as long as 10 years ago. Or they were disqualified due to being on some kind of ADD Rx (now there is a waiver).
The military is already moving toward a more technical one, with tech moving from not just the H&S echelons, but even down to the platoon and squad level. The days of the “just a grunt,” are gone. A number of the C4ISR systems I worked on required advanced computer training.
Hard to imagine wanting to join the all new “woke” military.
China now has the biggest Navy and most likely Army in the world now. Going to war with them is a terrible idea. We wont win as it stands now.
“We wont win as it stands now”
no, as it stands right now militarily we’d mop the floor with them – and this not taking into account india or japan.. but this is changing all the time and not slowly and not in our favor.
Sorry Sean you are wrong, the Chinese army hasn’t been blooded in war, where most of the western armies have,
they wouldn’t have the stomach for a full on conflict, just look whats happening in Ladeka India, the Indians are
giving the Chinese heaps up there.
In my opinion they wouldn’t be able to cope and fail.
Chinese troops in North Korea in the 1950’s were “blooded’, many of the first wave had no weapons–their patriotic duty was to make GIs waste their ammo on the unarmed, so we’d have less when the armed troops of the second wave overran our positions. China then,–as now, know that they can afford to sacrifice millions of their soldiers in order to wear down an enemy and his ability to resupply with ammo, meds, food etc.
Bill Gates has been in the news buying up farm lands. However, China has been buying up farmlands too. The wind towers are made by China. What no one talks about is just south of the border is a Chinese division. Also, next to the air force base in Del Rio, Texas, the Chinese have brought up thousand of acres. They have a controlling interest in the stock exchange. Even a lot of banks are owned by the Chinese. Now lets talk ports. All the major ports in the US is owned by China…. Thanks to congress approving the sales. We have UN troops in the US. Utah has a UN base. Biden is tied to the Chinese, but so is Texas governor Abbott. The Chinese are here. In San Antonio and other major cities are Chinese facilities that are tax exempt. The goods are shipped to Mexico and come in unchecked to those facilities in our country. Bill Clinton gave the Chinese a copy of the entire US patent library. They have our technology. The has been degraded with social justice.
Now lets do some solution brainstorming. Stop sending our children to indoctrination colleges. Instead send them to a trade school. Teach them skills. Quit working for corporations, but start mom & pop businesses. Deal in cash and not credit cards. I am sure if we try we could effect some changes.
Yes, sending our children to indoctrination colleges is very costly, student loan debt if/when they graduate. Automobile repair, plumbing, electrical… trade schools are a better path, to teach them employable skills.
My happiest years in my 42 yrs in the workforce were my times with smaller companies << less than 100 people. If i cud do it all over again i wudnt work for big corporations, or governments next time. My first tech job in highschool was grasscutting, self employed, then radio & tv repair with a mom & pop business. Happy times.
I deal in cash and not credit cards, cheat the big banks out of most of their service charges.
Yes, we Canadians cud join you Americans & effect change.
Sorry. The UN does NOT have a base in Utah. There might very well be troops whose country is a member of the UN in the USA, because I’ve trained with then here in the America multiple times (and I’m not talking about NATO troops, but UN) but I don’t think even the current untrustworthy lying leaders in DC are that treacherous, they prefer to do there dirty work via backscratching closed door deals…. OVER THERE! (for the future)
Now as far as the ChiComs… Yes, they’re in both Mexico and in Canada (and there is video evidence of both locations) however, the Canadian General officers refused to do the extensive training they were directed to conduct (refused in a non-mutinous manner) so Boy-Wonder Trudeau, to save face threw the ChiComs some type of bone and they supposedly were satisfied (???) I’ve read reports where the ChiComs also have an active base in Jamaica (mon…) but I can’t confirm that one.
So yes… Generally speaking, there is no denying that the Chinese are trying very hard to dominate the entire globe
TREASON HAS BECOME FASHIONABLE IN AMERICA,and very few care,THE MEN are as women,the women think their men,and the WOMEN are running the US MILITARY,THE GOVERNMENT AND MOST EVERYTHING ELSE,I suggest ALL of you ,GET close to the LORD NOW,your going to be slaughtered by your own stupidity and government,YOUR POLICE GANGS will be coming for your guns shortly and the military will be with them,KENT STATE AND KATRINA were your RED FLAGS,they were ignored by all the men,NOW its time to die..AMERICA has crossed the RUBICON…ITS straight down from here,you’ve gone off the cliff…
Off your meds again Arizona?
The military has had an issue with finding military aged males that can pass a physical fitness test, let alone a Rx one without a waiver.
How are these troops to face China or even a local force?
Please, tell us all.
Is the Statue of Liberty kaput?
That’d be very disconcerting.
Under Keynesian economics, where the government is the engine behind the economy, and where money that the government spends spurs the economy by the multiplier effect, no longer works. Since much of the stimulus money that the government spreads out will ultimately end up in China, the old method of stimulating the economy no longer holds true.
Now the military will also be affected.
Another part of the problem is that if the US were able to bring back work and reopen factories, who would be willing to work in factories today? Young people today go to college and figure that they will get high paying jobs to shuffle papers back and forth, while watching others doing the manual labor. Except, no young people will want to be the ones doing the dirty work. What a conundrum our government has created by farming out the factories.
WW 3 will start this way, I believe. The CCP installed Sleepy/Creepy Joe by a Coup, so they won’t pick a fight with the United Soviet States as long as they have control. However, I believe us Deplorables clinging to our Bibles and Guns, are getting more pissed off with each Commie Bill Nazi Pelosi pushes through, which will lead to a second American Civil War. This is why there are 5,000 troops in D.C. protecting Nancy, Joe, Kamala, and Chucky.
Then to protect their Comrades in D.C./Blue States, China will lend a hand to the fighting against American Patriots. A Civil War turns into a World War, as Allies join in on both sides.
“The CCP installed Sleepy/Creepy Joe by a Coup”
as I understand it biden’s entire cabinet is solely jewish dual-citizens. china obviously was not in control of the election, someone else was.
Jewish dual-citizens? WHAT?
More than half of the administration is Black or Hispanic
so how do you get “the entire cabinet” is Jewish dual-citizens? (and yes you can be a Hispanic or Black Jew, but I doubt very much that that’s the case here.)
Rucksack Bob,
Right you are.
The majority of the Biden admin is Obama admin leftovers. The Biden 1st admin is nothing more than the Obama 3rd admin.
This whole “. . . .biden’s entire cabinet is solely jewish dual-citizens.” is idiotic and moronic race biting.
Ignore Gman and his rants.
You will be better off for it.
“Ignore Gman and his rants.
You will be better off for it.”
well you’ll certainly be happier.
“China will lend a hand to the fighting against American Patriots”
absolutely. china would be more than happy to park ten army groups in california (with or without california’s request ….). those that talk about a civil war here might want to take that into consideration.
An army group is 400,000 to 1,000,000 solders. If what china has is a lot of container ships, you can’t put solders in shipping containers for weeks. The Pacific ocean is very, very wide. Sure lots of arms, supplies, etc. But not tanks or heavy trucks either. Fighter aircraft in pieces, maybe. 10,000,000 solders require a lot of arms and fuel. We destroy the refineries on the west coast, how are they going to move those troupes around? Feed them? I can’t see that our military will just stand down. DC might order them too but our military rank and file won’t stand for that. We will sink most of their shipping in weeks if not days. Not going to happen in the foreseeable future.
All people in charge (and the entire population in fact) seem to care these days is WOKEism, minorities, tribalism, rights over duty and merit, consumerism over sacrifice, and “pain avoidance”. This leads to decadence, alright.
It’s not just in U.S. but the entire western, at least the majority of it. While eastern is hard producing, saving, studying, investing long-term. No wonder they’re advancing while we’re stalling.
We need capable, smart and patriotic people taking care of planning, strategizing, thinking about the future an collective good of the nation and the western culture.
We need the people supporting this kind of leadership. Let’s hope these values come back to fashion before it’s too late.
USA working hard here in australia to try and diversify
Defence and space industries absolutely mushroomimg
Building new oil refineries and storage
Getting ready for something fer sure
3/2/21
Australia ReOpens Tungsten Mine on King Island- Metal Used to Make Ballistic Missiles & Weapons. China the Worlds Largest Producer
https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/mining/australias-big-move-to-take-part-of-chinas-monopoly/news-story/289d8d3a3b856967ae0bb13f5f49a0a2
3/2/21
Lynas Rare Earths Secures Second Pentagon Contract to Build Processing Facilities in Texas, Reducing China Dependence
https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/australianz/pentagon-awards-40-million-in-rare-earths-funding-to-australias-lynas
Author contradicts his own argument. No point in bringing back the jobs if your supply lines are still dependent on Asian product or raw materials. Tariffs may encourage local production but increase the cost overall if production, as is likely, depends on imported product.
Geez.. it was the 90s when the Contract On America (it was never with us) made union busting and giving corporate america a sweet tax deal (that got nothing but sweeter over the years) on overseas profits. And just now you’re waking up to the fact we’re dependent on China? The good old red meat propaganda – guns, gays, god kept voters focus away from the screw job that has us in the predicament we’re in today.
The simple and sad fact is that we are no longer capable of producing the smallest of parts domestically. I’m going to throw this out, but I firmly believe there’s a direct causal relationship here. As Master’s in Business Administration programs increased in our colleges and universities, American Domestic Production and Jobs decreased. Corporate Profit and Investor dividends became the unspoken goal, and products and components that were produced domestically, were phased out for foreign bought products and components that were cheaply produced. The Investors were happy as their dividend return grew and they cried for more. Thus domestic production declined as more and more foreign products and components took the place of domestic goods. Entire industries ceased to function as the taxation, fees, Union demands an excessive government restrictive practices made these industries close.
Unfortunately, there’s no quick and easy fix to the problems that our reliance upon foreign products have created. Our strongest allies have the same problem. It was a serious mistake, and we’ll regret that it happened long after we’re gone, as our progeny will have to deal with the situation our government helped and encouraged to create.
Out-and-out war will last a couple hours only.
I would not ingest or buy anything you have to rely on for your life ANYTHING from China.
How’s DAT for understanding China??
It’s a sad fact that the Western world is sliding down the toilet and mainly because of politics.
All Western politics thinks short term, thinks profit, thinks ‘Try and stop the other guy rather than compete’, as competing means investment without a quick return.
Yet another reason why the emerging industrial powerhouses are in a better position than the West. They think decades ahead, the West, 4 years ahead, maybe.
As for war for war sake? There are few countries that do that.
Most sensible ‘aggressors’ just invest, win hearts and minds, and all for the ‘small return’ of being allowed to trade.
As for thinking sanctions or even regime change achieve anything?
Name me one country where either has achieved anything? The only people it hurts is those with ‘little to nothing’ in the first place. The rich and corrupt stay rich and politically it’s easy to enrage the masses as in “It’s not your leaderships fault, just the global bullies and religion hating countries that are inflicting the pain”.
Plus any regime change leaves a power vacuum or places a puppet government in power that falls pretty damn quick once ‘The regime changers’ go home.
The media talk of WW3 is how their armies will be defeated.
Abroad on someone else’s turf? Maybe.
As for attacking a country as big as the US, China, or Europe as a whole?
The older among us still remember the cold war (version one) where mutually assured destruction (MAD) was the stopper for such attacks.
Thus the first person to throw a nuke guaranteed MAD.
That and the cynical observation that only a loser would throw a ‘crowd pleaser’ into the mix.
Then someone withdrew from arms control treaties and the scientists of the nuclear war found themselves making more boom. Politics again endangering life. MAD once again in the hands of temps aka politicians.
I think there is only one common enemy throughout the world and that is politics.
The sort where you foolishly think a vote will change things for the better.
A family member is a quality control engineer employed by DOD, she reports that many electronic components used in ‘American-made” equipment intended for the military are in fact made in China. Her job is to test the “American-made” equipment, and reject them if they have Chinese-made components. Sadly, it’s a never-ending battle, as some manufacturers continue to illegally use ChiCom components, yet never seem to be punished…
of course we should buy american. but we have to remember how much we love a bargain. usa worker wages are much higher than asian laborers. the added tariffs will make more american living wage jobs and will also make most of what we buy cost significantly more than it does now.
The West is too wrapped up with self serving politics and ‘doing the leftie thing’ to look around at how it has staganted over the last decade (or few) through under investment in industry.
Which is why the Asian and Indian economies, plus Russia are going from strength to strength. They also persue their goals with enthusiasm and invest heavily in industry, innovation, and technology.
Meanwhile the West is relying more and more on the white collar service and banking industries to keep them afloat.
Can this be reversed?
Na, not while our systems of government, ideology, and ethos remain in their current form.
Expecially if those governments keep thinking the own it all and everyone within.
Which, in the main they do.
After all in the UK government is made up of well monied people.