I want the US military to be seriously tested and fail for the same reason I always end up turning off horror movies and reading the ending online.

I don't think we're at the point yet where anyone could defeat us in the field. America has global air supremacy, truly unreal how powerful we are.

Nobody has the equal of US weapon systems because all potential rivals adopted economic systems that are EVEN DUMBER than Woke Capitalism.

One thing traveling the world opened my eyes to is that the entire planet is downstream of American technology. You will find almost nothing anywhere else in the world that isn't sitting on our foundation.

Iran can't break out of its cage; Shiite theocracy is largely incapable of organizing people into anything worthwhile. Zero meaningful accomplishments there.

Russia is a spent force. Right-wing LARPers idolize it, but they are in most ways in even more dire straits than America. Kleptocracy prevents them from seriously advancing on their own, 100 years of cultural rot has sapped their vitality.

Russia can't maintain their lone aircraft carrier or build a new one. Their military sits on a 3rd world economy of mineral extraction, which is why we see almost no technological developments outside of what they can buy or copy from the West.

We don't use Russian robots, software, electronics, or machinery. Their exports consist largely of grain and minerals. The only reason to import Russian manufactures is you're under US embargo.

China is a paper tiger. They're even worse at tech than the Russians...can't even make their own military jet engines. China actually *assembles* far more than they *make.* Sophisticated electronic components are made elsewhere, assembly done in China.

All that said, the foundation
of American military power is our technology *and* our people. The government has worked diligently to harm and dispirit the very people it relies on for military recruitment.

You're already starting to hear about the Army struggling to find qualified recruits. Whoops, maybe abolishing phys ed and pathologizing patriotism had some unintended consequences.

On top of that, war-making requires civilian political support. USG lost civilian support for real wars by the 1990s. The public has zero appetite for crushing and killing in the name of Empire, I mean, uh, democracy and human rights

We lost in Afghanistan because Americans had zero desire to conquer and rule it. We liked the idea of smiling hijabis voting for girls learning to code, formal rule of a territory, not so much.

Around 2500 Americans have died in Afghanistan. That is...not a lot of war dead. 10x as many died in WW2.

So this leads to the question: what happens when there's a conflict in the outer reaches of the empire, and Americans don't *want* to send the invincible legions?

For example, how much willpower is there in America to defend Taiwan from China? Put a number on how many lives we'd be willing to lose to defend an island most of us know nothing about from a country we've been fed glowing propaganda about.

The 40% of America that isn't white doesnt give a shit about Taiwan. I bet most of the white population doesn't either.

China v. Taiwan isn't a war we can win with the CIA clandestinely funneling arms and support personnel to insurgents.

America couldnt even defeat Syria with the usual black op techniques.

Scenario: China invades Taiwan.

Next thing that happens is US politicians are fighting. Remember, lots of them take Chinese bribes. They'll join with isolationists to demand we stay out.

Popular support will therefore be just as divided.

With mainstream US media being divided between sinopuppets saying Taiwan belongs to China and neocons beating war drums, no real consensus will be reached.

So the USG extends a weak, tepid response. Americans are in no mood to sacrifice >100k lives for an outer province of an empire we won't even admit exists. So POTUS calculates what he thinks is a low-risk response: send an invincible carrier group to establish a no-fly zone.

China tells the US to back off, threatens us with a carrier-killing missile. Most likely ending is the carrier group just sails around impotently out of reach, while propaganda back home claims we're making sure China is respecting transgender rights in Taiwan.

And with that, US military power has been tested, and failed. Everyone now knows the outer territories are fair game. You don't need to beat a US tank battalion...you just need to credibly threaten a carrier.

Also means other major players now know they're on their own. India, EU, etc no longer rely on US hegemony. India doesnt need to be a "superpower," just needs to fend off decrepit Russians and Chinese regimes.

So the world gets reorganized based on who will actually fight. Proximity and size start to matter more than ideology. If you're small don't want the Chinese in you face, better align with somebody who is big and has a motive to fend them off

The world is about to rediscover where empires came from.

Hint, it was never just "greed" and "racism."