The next U.S. military conflict?
If any of you are wondering what the next military conflict for the U.S. might be, think China over Taiwan. Certainly, when a military power like the U.S. decides to invade another country, like we just did in Iraq, part of the motivation is to send a message to potential adversaries to beware of our military might. That it's real and effective, and we're not afraid to use it.
U.S.: China reassessing military strategy
By ROBERT BURNS
AP MILITARY WRITER
Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, right, reviews an honor guard with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao during a welcoming ceremony in Beijing's Tiananmen Square Friday May 28, 2004. Abdullah is in China with a delegation of more than 100 corporate and government leaders to promote commercial and political ties. (AP Photo/Greg Baker)
WASHINGTON -- China is reassessing how it would counteract the U.S. military in a potential conflict over Taiwan, based on what it saw in the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the Pentagon says.
Chinese leaders have taken note of the speed with which American ground forces captured Baghdad in April 2003 and the prominent role that was played in Iraq by U.S. special operations commandos.
In its annual report to Congress on developments in the Chinese military, the Defense Department said China is rethinking the concept that American airpower alone is sufficient to prevail in a conflict - a concept it inferred from the 1999 air war over Kosovo, which involved no U.S. ground forces.
"The speed of coalition ground force advances and the role of special forces in (Iraq) have caused the People's Liberation Army theorists to rethink their assumptions about the value of long-range precision strikes, independent of ground forces, in any Taiwan conflict scenario," the report said.
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