GDP per capita in the US is over $85,000. GDP per capita in China is less than $14,000. Just as increased costs of basic items in the US hurt the poor more than they do the rich, increased prices of basic items (which fuel is) takes a larger bite out of China’s discretionary income than it does that of the US.


Similarly, while the US imports a large percentage of fruits and vegetables - predominately from Mexico - it is overall a big exporter of corn, wheat, and other grains. China struggles to be self sufficient in food, and greatly depends on imports of fertilizer from the Middle East and from Russia. Fertilizer, made from natural gas, is also a commodity, and approximately 25% of the worlds supply comes from the Middle East. Either elevated prices or even merely less availability, will have a more profound effect on China than on us.

in fact, a prolonged blockade of Hormuz by the USN might cause some serious questioning in China about just how badly they want to retake Taiwan.

Taiwan. More than Alaska is American, Formosa like Hong Kong, is Chinese. A deal nexus, as well there to be struck.

How about 4) uses up very expensive missile interceptors and other ordnance at an incredible pace, thereby literally weakening our own position outside the immediate theater.

ohhh no, how will we ever defend ourselves against the Canadians?

*certain ordnance. The mainstay of our aerial ordinance is vast.

I'm sure it is. But a Shahed drone costs about $35K per. The DoD (sorry, DoW) states that our interceptors range from $250K to $2M... Each.

It's ok, we'll just print more money to finance it all.

Yes the interceptors are expensive. Luckily GP bombs are relatively cheap and plentiful.

No we won't. That's why the DoD is modifying unguided 70mm rockets with extremely cheap guidance systems. If you're not military, 70mm rockets are the small cheap ones they ripple launch from helo pods in 'Nam movies. Big bottle rockets basically.

Drones are so slow and non-reactive that it doesn't take $ophisticated systems like AIM-9/120, PAC-3, SM-2, etc to splash them.

Guess that's another fringe benefit, we got to try out out gear against some of the new asymmetric stuff before a main event in the Pacific. We can practice shooting down model airplanes with bottle rockets.

$1 Trillion every 5 months to be exact.

"Since the Iran war began in late February, the United States has burned through around 1,100 of its long-range stealth cruise missiles built for a war with China, close to the total number remaining in the U.S. stockpile. The military has fired off more than 1,000 Tomahawk cruise missiles, roughly 10 times the number it currently buys each year.

The Pentagon used more than 1,200 Patriot interceptor missiles in the war, at more than $4 million a pop, and more than 1,000 Precision Strike and ATACMS ground-based missiles, leaving inventories worrisomely low, according to internal Defense Department estimates and congressional officials.

The Iran war has significantly drained much of the U.S. military’s global supply of munitions, and forced the Pentagon to rush bombs, missiles and other hardware to the Middle East from commands in Asia and Europe. The drawdowns have left these regional commands less ready to confront potential adversaries like Russia and China, and it has forced the United States to find ways to scale up production to address the depletions, Trump administration and congressional officials say."

So while we spend $$$ like it's going out of style, Russian oil revenues *double* month-to-month. Talk about a transfer of wealth few voters thought they were signing up for ...