[Salon] U.S. General Michael Minihan warns war with China possible in 2025 - The Washington Post

[Todd Pierce <todd.e.pierce@icloud.com>]

Please forgive my continuing focus on and criticism of “Traditional Conservative/Republican/CIA Warmongers," and how they would create a pro-war, pro-interventionist ideological template that Barry Goldwater’s friend Scoop Jackson would copy for his Democratic “network,” of the same National Security State Ideology (NSSI). And thereafter, working in parallel with Republicans to promote/continue the U.S. policy of Perpetual Interventionism, since the 1970s, down to the present. So that today, we have multiple, bi-partisan “networks,”  connected by an identical NSSI, differing only in “targeting” priorities, if even that. As we see in the present, with all but a fraction of the political class seemingly dead set on escalation of the “Limited War” with Russia today, into “Total War.” Or as they call it, “Total Victory,” which by its definition, includes, as it always did with the Nuclear Age, nuclear weapons, as we saw with “Total Victory” over Japan in 1945. 

Which I have been arguing to other email lists I’m on that the very rhetoric used to incite other’s, and fuel our own, “hostile feelings,” inevitably lead to escalation of the war(s), as Clausewitz understood as the “cause" of war. But with this rhetoric all around us in the U.S., escalation of the war against Russia is inevitable, I’m afraid, as with our NSSI, “war is what we do.” As a friend of Bill Polk’s and Norman Birnbaum, before they passed, both of whom I met through the Committee for the Republic, with all of us in agreement that the U.S. was under the ideological control of extreme militarists, I have been dismayed at how readily so many people, once of sound, anti-militarist/war mind,  would diminish themselves and go over to the “Militarist’s” side when Trump was elected President so quickly. And become rousing cheerleaders for what I will out of politeness call the “quasi-fascism,” using quasi in its meaning   being partly or almost.

And began calling for tightening sanctions on Venezuela as I once heard a one-time, “non-interventionist Conservative” call for in a “libertarian podcast.” 

And The American Conservative magazine, with its Claremont Fellows in the lead, incessantly inciting “hostile feelings” toward China, as Bannonites, and the “New Right,” with fellow Conservatives, as they did at a “Conservative/Republican” event in Naples, FL, while promoting DeSantis, Gaetz, and Trump, not too long ago. And the list could go on, as I’ve sometimes shared here. Inadequately, however, as the “revisionist history” of the “Right" and now "New Right," never ceases to be written to reinvent the Conservatives/Republicans, to a somewhat war-weary public, to propagate the “Big Lie” that it is the “Conservative/Republicans” who "keep us out of wars," and who are “non-interventionists,” thereby completely revising “actual history.” As a visit to the Goldwater archives, and reading Stephen Kinzer, until he too fell for the lie that Matt Gaetz and the Republicans have “roots as the antiwar party,” contradicting his own books. Beginning with The True Flag, Overthrow, The Brothers, etc., all of which prove the most extreme pro-war, pro-interventionist elements in U.S. history since U.S. Grant was elected, were Republicans. 

With the only respite post-Civil War from overseas intervention/imperialism, being under Democrat Grover Cleveland, until Wilson came along. But see “Nothing Less Than War” by Justus Doenecke for a well documented history of the Republicans, led by Teddy Roosevelt, did everything possible into baiting Wilson to go to war in Europe immediately in 1914, and until he did, with their “War Preparedness” ideology they propagated before and during the war, against Wilson’s reluctance, until the “Libertarian” hero of H.L. Mencken, Ludendorff, succeeded with unlimited U-boat warfare, and then the Zimmerman Letter, to precipitate US entry into the war. Which is not to defend Wilson, who bears much guilt for the Espionage/Sedition Act, with much Republican provocations for that, and his refusal to countenance any disruption of the Global Imperial Order after the war, but is merely my small attempt to rebut the continuous right-wing historical revisionism, even infecting Stephen Kinzer now, it seems.  

As well, one’s own experience for anyone who grew up in the Cold War era should stand as proof that the most extreme pro-war, pro-interventionist elements in U.S. politics in that era were Republicans, with the worst of them the “Traditional Conservatives! As I learned through my step-mother's in-law, a Maryland Republican Conservative activist , from MacArthur, McCarthy, Taft, and Goldwater on,  who told me approvingly of the “hawkish roots” of the Republican Party in the Cold War era. Confirmed by all the Republican/Conservative propaganda I’ve seen since. As I’m sure those Committee members who are still utilizing their minds know as well. 

While MacArthur came to understand (eventually) that the US could not win a ground war in Asia, which most of his fellow Conservatives never were smart enough to understand, including his friend/mentoree, the Senator from Arizona, the two were in full agreement, according to their correspondence, that the US had the “right” to control all of the Pacific Ocean, right up to the shores of Asia. With our military asserting “ownership rights,” with General Curtis LeMay also serving as mentor/adviser to the AZ Senator, as the attached file shows. What could go wrong?

Attachment: Enemies of the Country:LeMay.pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document

Coincidentally, on the subject of the Strategic Air Command, I caught the Cold War propaganda movie by the same name last night:

https://trailersfromhell.com/strategic-air-command/

The beautiful, leisurely seeming, flying scenes in the movie of the Bombers, immediately reminded me of Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove, which in fact, was inspired by the same in "Strategic Air Command,” like this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WRbiCsENOo

For anyone curious, here is more on the SAC film:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Air_Command_(film)

https://www.nytimes.com/1955/04/21/archives/screen-into-the-wide-blue-yonder-air-command-starts-run-at.html

(Full disclosure: I was involved with the MN chapter of the Air Force Association in putting together a program on Low-Intensity Conflict at the U of M, and then member of the Board of Directors, until no longer having time when I began law school.)

Here is a “documentary,” as Ellsberg saw similarities to, on SAC, and its officers, which would include Goldwater’s close friend, General Curtis LeMay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yuy_ikD7ZDc, with some beautiful flying scenes, and a “pacific” conclusion of the sort we’re driving ourselves to, and a realistic portrayal of many SAC Officers at the time, and down to the present-day “Flag Officers,” of all U.S. Commands.

So given that war with China might well be coming up in two years, especially if the Republican-led House China Committee, “succeeds,” let’s say, "Thank God for the Republicans!" They’re ready for the ChiComs! Just like Goldwater was, and even have him as their model in rhetoric. And like Goldwater, won’t let any namely-pamby, weak and worthless, Democrats obstruct the way to war with ideas of giving “diplomacy” a chance. Just like the Conservative Movement founders opposed the same in their founding documents. 

So here’s what in store for us, as Conservative Republicans rush to defend us against the ChiComs: https://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/news/world_nation/rep-gallagher-outlines-agenda-for-houses-china-committee/article_8f9a882f-ea38-55fb-b771-b241007c822b.html

"Chairman Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., says his committee will occupy two lanes: owning niche topics — such as banning social media app TikTok — and shining a spotlight on discussions and work already being championed in the House, such as the importance of enhancing “hard power west of the international dateline.”

“How do we prevent Taiwan’s future from becoming Ukraine’s present? I think it’s going to be a theme of what we do on this committee,” he said in an interview Friday."

As a service to pro-war readers here, I will share many of the documents I scanned at the Goldwater archives, which with only a very minimal amount of editing, can be readily repurposed for today, by all factions of the War Party. But especially the most duplicitous element of them, the “New Right.” Though in fomenting war against China, it is apparent they have mastered the techniques of an earlier generation of the “New Right,” for fomenting war, and attacks upon “internal enemies,” as the attached file above, “Enemies of the Country” shows very well. As it shows as well that “truth” was never a “virtue,” in the "Right,” as this document is replete with “falsifications.” 

   

Disclaimer: This is not a defense of the Democrat’s own efforts to accelerate/escalate our wars, who also demonstrate adherence to “Goldwaterism,"in escalating the wars previously begun against the current “Axis,” China, Iran, and Russia. But only to compare the two parties as almost full ideological partners in that extremism, inevitably leading to what Germany did to itself at the hands of its militarist extremists. So it goes.

https://www.gzeromedia.com/viewpoint/gop-led-us-house-will-get-tougher-on-china-but-not-as-much-as-you-d-think

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/01/27/us-general-minihan-china-war-2025/

U.S. general warns troops that war with China is possible in two years

Gen. Michael A. Minihan, who oversees the Air Force’s fleet of transport and refueling aircraft, cited the 2024 presidential elections in Taiwan and the United States as part of his rationale

Dan LamotheJanuary 27, 2023 at 8:34 p.m. EST

Air Force Gen. Michael A. Minihan, the head of Air Mobility Command, warned troops in a memo that a war with China is possible in 2025. (Isaac Olivera/375th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs)

Save

China could be at war with the United States two years from now, a top Air Force general predicted in a bombastic and unusual memo to troops under his command, asserting a significantly shorter timeline before potential conflict than any other senior U.S. defense official to date.

Gen. Michael A. Minihan, who as head of Air Mobility Command oversees the service’s fleet of transport and refueling aircraft, warned personnel to speed their preparations for a potential conflict, citing Chinese President Xi Jinping’s aspirations and the possibility that Americans will not be paying attention until it is too late.

“I hope I am wrong,” Minihan wrote. “My gut tells me we will fight in 2025. Xi secured his third term and set his war council in October 2022. Taiwan’s presidential elections are in 2024 and will offer Xi a reason. United States’ presidential elections are in 2024 and will offer Xi a distracted America. Xi’s team, reason, and opportunity are all aligned for 2025.”

Minihan then directs airmen who are qualified to use a weapon to “fire a clip into a 7-meter target with the full understanding that unrepentant lethality matters most” sometime in February.

“Aim for the head,” he said.

Minihan’s memo encourages the thousands of troops under his command to prepare for war in several other regards. All personnel reporting to him should “consider their personal affairs” and be more aggressive about training, he instructs.

“Run deliberately, not recklessly,” he writes. “If you are comfortable in your approach to training, then you are not taking enough risk.”

The memo, first reported Friday by NBC News, is dated Feb. 1 — which is still days away — and was distributed to Minihan’s subordinate commanders. An Air Force spokeswoman, Maj. Hope Cronin, verified its authenticity, writing in a statement shared with media after the memo began circulating on social media that Minihan’s order “builds on last year’s foundational efforts by Air Mobility Command to ready the Air Mobility Forces for future conflict, should deterrence fail.”

Before taking over at Air Mobility Command in 2021, Minihan served in a variety of influential roles in the Pacific beginning in 2013. They include a stint as the deputy commander of Indo-Pacific Command, with purview of China and Taiwan, from September 2019 to August 2021.

The general’s memo coincides with an effort by the Pentagon to reset 20 years of counterinsurgency wars in the Middle East and as the Biden administration continues to equip Ukraine with billions of dollars in security assistance as it strives to fight off a Russian invasion.

Senior U.S. officials have warned for some time that an ascendant China may launch an assault on Taiwan, which is governed independently. The Defense Department under President Biden and his predecessor, President Donald Trump, has declared China its primary long-term concern, citing Beijing’s rapid military expansion and assertive behavior in recent years.

But U.S. officials have offered mixed messages on whether and when China might attempt to take Taiwan. In 2021, Adm. Phil Davidson, then the chief of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, predicted Beijing could make such an attempt by 2027. That timeline has since been dubbed “the Davidson window” by some national security scholars.

In light of its concerns about China, the Pentagon has sought to expand military partnerships with willing partners throughout the Pacific. This month, the U.S. and Japanese governments disclosed that a Marine Corps unit on the Japanese island of Okinawa will be refashioned into a force capable of hopping islands in the region and directing long-range missiles at adversaries.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, speaking Jan. 11 during a news conference alongside Japanese officials, said that the United States had observed some “very provocative behavior” from Chinese forces in an attempt to push international norms. But he also downplayed concerns that China may launch an assault on Taiwan any time soon.

“We’ve seen increased activity in aerial activity,” Austin said. “ … We’ve seen increased surface vessel activity around Taiwan. And again, we believe that they endeavor to establish a new normal, but whether or not that means that an invasion is imminent, I seriously doubt that.”

Minihan, who entered the Air Force as a C-130 pilot, has previously captured attention for his strident, colorful language.

In September, he said at a military conference outside Washington that the Air Force had caused the largest “pile of our nation’s enemy dead” within the U.S. military.

“Lethality matters most,” he added, according to Task & Purpose, a military publication. “When you can kill your enemy, every part of your life is better. Your food tastes better. Your marriage is stronger.”

Attachment: smime.p7s
Description: S/MIME cryptographic signature