Somewhere last weekend a few dozen former Cabinet members, senior military officers, academics and think tank analysts met to evaluate the world military
But Russia’s economic resilience in the face of supposedly devastating sanctions is only
one reflection of a great transformation of world trade. China’s exports to the Global South doubled during the past three years and China now exports more to the South than to developed markets. China’s unprecedented exporting success, in turn, stems from the rapid automation of Chinese industry, which now installs more industrial robots per year than the rest of the world combined.
This is evident, I added, in China’s newfound dominance in the world automotive market but it also has critical military implications. China claims that it has automated plants that can make 1,000 cruise missiles a day—not impossible given that it can manufacture 1,000 EVs a day, or thousands of 5G base stations.
The implication is that China can produce the equivalent of America’s inventory of 4,000 cruise missiles in a week while American defense contractors take years to assemble them by hand.
No one disputed the data I presented. And no one believed that Russia is taking 25,000 casualties a month. Facts weren’t the issue: The assembled dignitaries, a representative sampling of the foreign policy establishment’s intellectual and executive leadership, simply couldn’t imagine a world in which America no longer gave the orders.
They are accustomed to running things and they will gamble the world away to keep their position.
Hopefully not- their stubborn approach thus far is destroying Europe’s economies, NATO’s credibility, and all the various institutions of western financial control/dominance, bit by bit.
Provided that Russia hopefully doesn’t face any major setbacks, I’d love to see the end result of another year or two (if Ukraine can even last that long) and its effects on the world stage. The sooner the US empire breathes its last, the better (with the exception of outright nuclear war).
Do they need one?
I think this answer that question
1000 cruise missiles a day sounds bonkers, 100 cruise missiles getting used in a single day in Ukraine would be considered a colossal amount.
Hopefully not- their stubborn approach thus far is destroying Europe’s economies, NATO’s credibility, and all the various institutions of western financial control/dominance, bit by bit.
Provided that Russia hopefully doesn’t face any major setbacks, I’d love to see the end result of another year or two (if Ukraine can even last that long) and its effects on the world stage. The sooner the US empire breathes its last, the better (with the exception of outright nuclear war).