We might consider more publically supporting the Make In India campaign. To be brief, they have the same number of people, the largest democracy in the world, a disputed border with China (See Map of Arunachal Pradesh), nuclear weapons and quickly growing military, political connections with the U.S., a prime minister that is supporting economic growth and export activity through aggressive tax reform and financial system modernization, and many other factors that, with their scale, can be a formidable competitor against China. Moreover, I don’t believe India wants confrontation with China or anyone. Therefore, I think they are a safe alternative.
Supporting the abovementioned program doesn’t cost the U.S. any money, and it takes us out the woods when it comes to China’s economic activity so defined by cheating, poor standards, currency manipulation, and generally anti-Western attitudes. That could do a lot more to benefit the U.S. and help us militarily in Asia than simply funding conventional warfare, and we wouldn’t have to cut funding to so many great domestic programs that Trump wants to get rid of.
Other military action that might be good or bad? Well, we’ve got troops in Syria now. Trump talked about encouraging South Korea and Japan to have nuclear weapons. We’ve obviously conducted a raid in Yemen. Some of these are good, and some of these are bad. I’m not sure we want to have no military activity in Syria, though I’m not sure boots on the ground is the best way. Frankly, at this point, it might be, but I wish it weren’t. Nuclearizing South Korea and Japan? Haha, c’mon Donnie. That’s a blatant anti-China statement, and it would do nothing but worsen relations. If anything, we’re not there yet, and we’re not even close to needing that. THAAD will do just fine for now, especially since China thinks it’s against them even though it’s so clearly not and might not even be successful in stopping a Chinese missile. Its radar isn’t even functional in all directions, and the whole thing is only functional at a short distance.
My point is we can be involved in conventional warfare, but none of this is really getting us anywhere. We’re just spending more money, and we ought to find a better way before throwing so much more money at it.
So what’s my prediction?