• BashfulBob [none/use name]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    10
    ·
    12 hours ago

    the idea now is to blockade the Singapore straight, 3000 kilometers to the south, and cut off Chinese shipping from the world markets…

    It almost seems more practically to close the Suez and Panama canals to Chinese trade. I can’t imagine the folks that run Singapore would be thrilled at a nose dive in shipping traffic. Would they even play ball?

    that is to say, the nation that doesn’t produce anything but excel spreadsheets thinks it can win a war

    The US manufacturing capacity that continues to exist is entirely bound up in military construction and engineering. It’s the one thing we still actually do and do reasonably well.

    Does the US stand to benefit from a protracted naval conflict with another superpower? Of course not. But I have no doubt they could do at least as much damage as Russia has endured in its conflict with Ukraine.

    • barrbaric [he/him]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      9 hours ago

      I can’t imagine the folks that run Singapore would be thrilled at a nose dive in shipping traffic. Would they even play ball?

      I mean at that point what’re they gonna do, the Singaporean navy has 6 subs and 32 surface ships. Similar but slightly larger for Malaysia. FWIW ships can just bypass the entire Malacca Strait, and it’s not nearly as far as being forced to go around the cape.