You seem to think that conservatives don’t serve there country although the facts say different, many in the armed forces have more conservative viewpoints and aren’t’ ashamed to say so. In fact a majority of men in the armed forces didn’t vote for Dear Leader Obama. And I can’t blame them because for the last 20+ years, every time the Democrats come into power they hurt the state of our forces and defense and aerospace industries.

You may very well be correct on your prediction of a Chinese Blue Water Navy by 2050. My estimate is based most on Chinas unwillingness to commit the funds to the PLAN at the expense of the other more dominate branched of their military.

Navy’s are very expensive to build and ocean going fleets are very expensive to maintain. China to date has shown little interest in going beyond its 1st. Islands line of defense.

ALLONS,
Byron Skinner

First off, the “…cesspool of humanity…” that you refer to are just as American as anybody else and deserve to have their view aired.

From that cesspool comes the taxes that pay for all the useless military contract that are promoted by “conservative think tanks” like Heritage Foundation, which is nothing more then transfer of income from the working and middle classes to the wealthy equity holder of defense corporations, who pay these “think tanks” to peddle their good to corrupted congressmen, bureaucrats and career military officers whos careers they promote and promise seven and eight figure retire incomes.

Also from the “…cesspool of humanity…“come the men and women who serve in our armed forces.

If you have an opinion and don’t have the guts to put your name on it you are a coward. Being liberal is not being anti American, I’m a liberal and also served my country as an Infantryman, and to answer your question, no I was not drafted my serial number prefix was RA, something that I find few “conservatives” had the guts to do either in my generation or of todays generation.

The commentary is no worse or any better then that found in the American work place, at family picnics, at the neighborhood taverns, at a University etc. It is American and unlike Conservatives I as a Liberal think it all deserved a forum. Yes William I think even the crap that comes out of the Heritage Foundation and other winger think tanks and FOX deserves to be aired.

I noticed William that you lack the courage to use your full name. What’s wrong?

I do not underestimate the Chinese but do look at the realistically. China may someday again such as in the Ming Dynasty one again have a Blue Water Navy but I doubt in this century. China has some overwhelming domestic situations that must be addressed long before they can commit funds to building a military that would make them even a near competitor to the United States.

FOX supports Rush Limbaugh who has said it his goal to make the Presidency of President Obama fail. I would suggest that in any other country that would be a treasonous statement and FOX would be actively engaged in supporting Treason.

Personally I have no trouble of how Queen Elizabeth I dealt with traitors with those who supported them.

ALLONS,
Byron Skinner

Now I am sure you have figured out I am a conservative but regardless of your political and social views, the Chinese are not to be underestimated. They don’t want war, but they certainly want to become the leading superpower, and in the coming years are going to demonstrate that by building a true blue-water navy, more space developments, and modernizing their military forces. I believe we should meet this challenge.

First off for Willaim C., it saddens me that the Conservatives have so little factual content to support their positions on many matters especially China. I’m a liberal and damn proud of it, I post under my own name, but I am dismayed that Conservatives don’t have the moral courage to do the same. Other then childish personal attacks behind fictitious names conservative are void of any intellectual content to their arguments.

Peter M. Most likely the Varyag right now is serving as an engineering study classroom for the PLAN and shipbuilders. I saw a photo of the Varyag awhile back and it was riding really high in the water, it would appear that the Russians either removed the engineering (boiler, turbines, reduction gears etc) or they were never installed,the current paint job appears to have lower the water line to make this less apparent) if thats the case the Varyag would have to have considerable disassembly to be an active ship.

The Su-33’s have been kicked around for at least 10 years. China does have a carrier flight deck outlined on an airfield where some of it 24 Su-30 have been seen doing touch and go.

If China had an interest in a Carriers, which I really doubt personally, the French Mistral Class LHD (21.3 Kilo ton.) would be a viable economic and military option rather then trying to rebuild an old Russian haul or building carriers from scratch.

At 300–400 Million Euros they are a bargain, to be a player China would have to buy at least three in order to keep one LHD operational most of the times as well their order for Su-33’s would have to be increased to about a hundred as well as AH helicopters and increase their PLANM from 30K to at least 60K. China does have a very strong military/economic relationship with France.

Such a move as outlined above would greatly increase China’s presence of it’s South Seas fleet in what is perhaps it’s most important area of national and economic interest. If China could build a battle group around these LHD’s with capable destroyers and frigates they would be able to participate with the US, Japan and NATO in Naval exercises and in world wide peace keeping operations and get some much coveted some Blue Water status.

It is noted that regional rival India is considering the purchase of a Mistral Class LHD, with licensing to build their own, Russia is also trying to cut a deal with France (energy credits as payment) as well most like to serve with the Black Sea Fleet.

The really big question is China will to invest about 3 billion Euros in a small carrier project. Their preference in weapons systems has been to buy cheap aging or second tier platforms, in small numbers, and attempting to boost their effectiveness with third country technology/weapons from countries such as Israel, France, Switzerland, Germany etc. China’s attempts at reverse engineering have mostly been a bust. So far China has backed away from any deal as big as the French LDS’s would be for defense modernization.

ALLONS,
Byron Skinner

You actually think the GOP is paying people to troll message boards on a minor defense news site? Your insane.

Economically they are tied to us via markets and now devalued Treasury notes of actually being dumb enough to buy our debt! Not mentioned is the great decline in our manufacturing capacity and our dependene of foreign nation sourcing for everything from boots, uniforms (remember the black berea fiasco), ammunition (sourcing 5.56 from Canada, etc) and many electroni components no longer made in quantity here. So that implies that if we have to fight China… we had better order supplies in advance!

Reading the comments, one life does not matter to China if that is what happened to place the US Spy plane out of options and at mercy of Sir Issac Newton on Chinese Territory. Remember that it is not a problem for thousands of Chinese to storm a hill in Korea knowing there isn’t enough ammunition available to kill them all. One life does not matter. Now a thousand lives working together will matter.

Here, the USA will have to send 1000 people to training 6 months, replace half of them due to many reasons and maybe a year from now have them ready to do something.

Never mind Sun Tzu, we have enough difficulty working with each other and taking the USA in a useful direction.