All that posturing about wanting a truce in Ukraine and Middle East all points to the USA needing to make lots of weapons for any coming war with China and it is desperately in need of rare earth elements. There can never be two ways about it, and no amount of lying can cover up the truth.
As I said earlier, if the USA was able to manufacture enough interceptor missiles for both Ukraine and Israel, why is there a need to shift about 20,000 interceptor missiles from Ukraine to Israel to counter Iran? Why can't the USA produce more of them directly for Israel, knowing that Ukraine also needed them badly? Now that Israel and Iran are in a stalemate and in an uneasy truce, Trump is suddenly talking about making more patriot missiles for Ukraine to counter Russia. Why the sudden about turn, moving missiles out of Ukraine earlier and now wanting to cover up the lie?
Rare earth is not only China's bargaining chip, but also an existential commodity that it has to control tightly. No amount of bargaining over tariffs should this red line ever be crossed. Of course, the USA and its backers can always set up facilities to secure and process rare earth elements into useful magnets themselves, but time is not on their side cost and feasibility is a problem. Five or ten years is a long way to go from securing to making the final product.
Anonymous
China is making missiles using robots working 24 hours a day. And China has all the needed raw materials and processing facilities for that - rare earth, titanium, steel, aluminum and iron. Chinese manufacturing is all there to turn into and provide the supply chain for a war economy. China can fight a long war, or a short one if the USA cannot manufacture enough weapons needed to sustain a longer war.
ReplyDeleteOvercapacity is also to China's advantage, as Chinese manufacturing can turn to a war machine if needed. Can the USA do that as what it did in the past, and now with all manufacturing facilities all hollowed out. Of course, that can be remedied if Trump's attempt to lure manufacturing back to the USA is successful. But are present indications pointing to its success? What Trump has done is achieving something diametrically different from what he gloated about doing. Even true-blue USA entities like Apple, Boeing, John Deere, Ford and others are shifting production out of the USA. What really broke the camel's back was the added tariffs making imported components and raw materials very much more expensive.
There is now a deluge of propaganda using misleading reports about job creation in the USA, using smoke and mirrors to fool the masses regarding the reality. With entities shifting investment overseas, small retail outlets closing shop, food and beverage outlets going out of business and cuts in Federal spending, the loss of jobs cannot be hidden by creative reporting.
The deportation of illegal immigrants may create job opportunities in farming, food and beverage sectors and small retailing outlets, but are USA citizens willing to go for such low paying jobs? Immigrants do not have employment rights fighting for higher wages against errant employers, unlike USA workers that will demand high wages for such jobs. More businesses will bite the dust if USA workers are instead hired to replace those immigrants. Job openings may be created, but it does not musk the real issue of who is taking over those jobs.
USA will win in a propaganda war. Even trade war, tariff war, technology war, chip war are not that easy to win.
ReplyDeleteDid the USA win the Vietnam War? Did it win in Afghanistan? How about Ukraine? Think about it.