Message posted by Andre' M. Dall'au on April 04, 2001 at 4:04:53 PST:
When it comes to the waiting game, the Chinese have no peers. They will hold our people and let us sputter, wail, and bitch, and then let us look stupid by not even responding. What they will learn about our National command response and military posturing will be more valuable than the crap they got off the EP-3. They will find out what we will and will not do, how much pushing they can get away with and maximize the concessions we are willing to offer. WE are not in control here, and a very low key, almost "oh yeah, so what" approach will work as good as any. We better regard the aircraft as lost, the crew on TDY for weeks, and recalibrate our codes. Don't send in the Marines (OK, maybe just Spooky), don't put SEALs on Fast Attacks for deployment, Don't put the Rangers on alert, just sit back and wait for them to respond. They certainly are. Since the Pueblo, situations of enemy takeover of commands have had new rules. I'm sure the crew would not have landed without destroying the most crucial and top tier equipment. They better have. If not the A/C commander should have ditched abd taken his chances. War, I don't think so. You'd better review the opponent though. Tiennamen Square should be a clue, using your own tanks to crush an uprising after you let it go long enough to get all the leaders identified, and then flashing your butt to the world when they complain. Hey, if they are willing to roll tanks and use heavy machine guns on their own people, holding our crew to provoke a negative response, or get massive concessions, is minimum. When it is all said and done, if we make a big deal about this, the Chinese will be enjoying the sight of Dick Cheney whitewashing the Great wall, while spending the money they'll be getting on the trade concessions. We'll probably have to make a public apology and a declaration by George W. that "Jackie Chan RULES!". Hey, for the short run, let's just boycott all things Chinese. If the American people made noise that they thought China sucked enough to stop buying things Chinese, we'd get a "so solly" PDQ.
In Reply to: WAR on the Horizon; Importance of A51 and the Desert posted by Spooky_Dogg on April 03, 2001 at 4:58:43 PST:
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