I know - but God knows how tired one gets of watching the so-called PTB's (powers that be) compounding one mistake with another.
I'm a big fan of not doing dumb stuff.
This one is going to be a real sticky booger and I don't care who is in power.
Want to know my vision of the future?
We won't go all in for Taiwan. They know that. Public won't go for it. Americans dying for Asians? You think that will fly right now? That's just a bad position to try and defend. Too close to their shores. Too easy to bring the entire power of the landmass up to the coast to project across the water. Sadly Taiwan will have to face occupation.
Still we can't just shrug it off without burning our alliance reputation on the spot for generations. That is a cost that sadly I don't think most of the public will appreciate.
My guess is we'd feel compelled to put up at least half a fight to save face. That's the worst of all. After a brief and pointless sacrifice of life, we'd fall back to our defensive perimeter (Japan, Korea, Philippines , Australia). Then the reckoning. A complete and total blockage of the Chinese landmass. Nothing goes in or comes out. Not goods. Not food. Not medicine, not fuel, not fertilizers, not farm equipment, nor any petroleum or raw materials. Any Chinese vessel approaching the blockade line is sunk by stand off missiles without further warnings.
China has no blue-water navy and all those allies have missiles that can complete bottle up those sea lanes they dominate. Within a year the Chinese will be in the stone age.
