Friday, 27 August 2010

The Importance Of Applying Thought To Action

Sebo Koh talks a limited degree of sense on the military aspect of Taiwan-China relations:
"For a small country like Taiwan ... defense strategy must include “pre-emption” and “retaliation” capabilities. As former US secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld said in his farewell speech at the Pentagon, “Weakness is provocative.” Only by making an attack on Taiwan prohibitively costly is it possible to prevent war."
But of course the inevitable crushing of such possibilities beneath the giant centripetal caveat is painful to read:
"However, given President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) goal of eventual unification and the friendly Taiwan-China relations, the above “wishes” would be very difficult to realize, even when the increasing cross-strait military imbalance in Beijing’s favor is evident."
It is no good whinging on about buying subs and helicopters if neither you yourself nor the political leadership will act to make it happen. Defensive thought must be framed within an overall context of political and military strategy gearing different tactics to different loci of action falling within your own range of capability. Such defensive thought by serious people must be advanced now while the manifest signs of what is to come are still in their "early" stages.

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