Missile Militarism in Asia

https://www.thedefensepost.com/2021/10/28/india-tests-ballistic-missile/

As China intensifies its missile programmes, India is keen to do the same. While Beijing's primary focus is on the US Navy and in particular its fleet of aircraft carriers, an East Asian War would almost certainly involve India. Beijing and New Delhi have been on edge for decades and thus India is pursuing this technology and as with all tests – sending a signal.

Both nations are building up their forces on their Himalayan borders and there's another key factor at play – Pakistan. If war were to break out, would Islamabad come to the aid of Beijing or vice versa?

No one really knows but I'm sure it's something both Indian and US intelligence would like to find out.

Would the US help India? On one level it would but I'm also sure the planners in Washington would hope that India would direct as much of Beijing's energy and firepower as possible. Though it would never be 'official' policy, the Pentagon would be more than willing to see India decimated if it can give the US an upper hand.

If the hypersonic threat is a potent as General Milley has made it out to be, I'm afraid the US is probably considering some pretty terrible options – namely the use of nuclear weapons to hit the hypersonic launch targets – if that's possible. Only then can the US Navy and its carriers wage the kind of war the US has planned for.

In the meantime India is purchasing 'bunker buster' bombs from France and to the ire of Washington, New Delhi is taking delivery on the Russian S-400, surface-to-air (SAM) and anti-ballistic missile (ABM) system – by all accounts one of the best in the world.

However, the purchase means India won't be integrating its military with the US any time soon. But given that a great deal of India's armament comes from the former Soviet Union and Russia, the kind of overhaul the US (and Wall Street) would like to see is not in the cards.

Additionally, while India has formed an alliance with the US, they're unwilling to burn all other historical bridges – as their conflict is not with Moscow. Also, even Western-friendly Narendra Modi is unwilling to make his nation completely dependent on US weapons systems – and thus under the power of the Pentagon.

US General Mark Milley referred to China's hypersonic tests as a Sputnik moment. Some believe this is an exaggeration, but the statement itself reveals that the US is preparing for war. It was a wake-up call for the domestic audience and a shot across the bow for US enemies.

The media that was so quick to report on the Sputnik analogy largely missed the fact that he and other in-theatre generals have openly predicted war with China sometime in the next 2-6 years.

The scenario is repeatedly couched as an aggressive China challenging the post-1945 rules-based order. But the order they refer to was and basically is the framework of America's Empire – especially in Asia. It was an order China never agreed to and one imposed on defeated and devastated nations, and in other cases nations that had been subjugated to Washington.

Seventy-five years later the arrangement has become unacceptable to China. Other nations are less than thrilled with the order as it stands, but are unable to challenge it. And when faced with the choice of domination by Beijing vs. Washington, the extant ruling classes and national elites (that have done very well for themselves by being subject to Washington) don't want to see the status quo dispensed with.

China for its part has grown and while it has shed the legacy of Mao, it is in some respects finally bringing Mao's rhetoric to fruition. 1949 represented an end to a century of humiliation and foreign dominance. And yet Mao's rule from 1949-1976 resulted in domestic catastrophe, starvation, and mass death. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) dispensed with any pretense to communism in the late 1970's and embarked on a new plan of capitalist exploitation – of its own people. China was turned into a sweatshop for the West and yet the ruling sectors of the country became wealthy, and as of a decade ago with the rise of Xi – Beijing stands ready (really for the first time since the Manchu period) to re-assert its historical position in East Asia.

And yet, given the state of the world and the wealth China has amassed, Xi Jinping has embarked on global mission to expand and solidify Chinese power. Whether empire-creep or a deliberate policy meant to challenge Western standing in the World Island of Afro-Eurasia, China stands ready to edge out the American-led West. But with the globalist system in place, it's hard to isolate China, or Asia for that matter. The implications are global and the US Empire has been global for many decades. Any challenge to it risks bringing the entire system down in toto. These are the stakes and nations like India and many others are caught in the middle – forced to choose a side. One doesn't know how happy Modi is with his choice but given the historical animosity between New Delhi and Beijing, his hands are tied.

And so the weapons are sold, the armies bolstered. The merchants of death are enriched and the populations hold their breath.

See also:

https://www.thedefensepost.com/2021/11/03/india-himalayan-border-defenses/