While the world is clamoring on Iran and Israel right now, it’s important to not take our eyes off of other conflict theaters around the world. I’m not too worried about Palestine or Ukraine, since there’s no chance in Hell that America gets pulled into these wars. With that said, we can’t ignore the Pacific. When China eventually invades Taiwan, Drunk Uncle Sam will have to jump into the fray. Just not for the reason you might think…
Let’s start with the alleged reasons that we’ll defend Taiwan. One of the most common arguments is the so-called Silicon Shield. For those not in the know, it’s the thinking that since Taiwan is the King of Semiconductors, that’ll protect them. After all, mainland China is still dependent on Taiwanese-made semi-conductors. On its face, it’s solid reasoning. It’s also dead wrong.
The Silicon Shield isn’t going to be the reason America intervenes against Chinese aggression to the island. America has been trying hard to pivot away from the single point of supply chain failure called Taiwan for years now. Ditto for the Chinese Communist Party. Granted, the Taiwanese will still be the world’s leading chipmaker, but we won’t exactly need cutting edge chips. Believe it or not, we used to make cars, toasters, and appliances without any fucking chips in them at all. This occurred in a long-forgotten era known as the 1990’s (dun dun dun). Thus, we could easily figure out how to do it again.
Will it be because of the Military Industrial Complex? It’s not exactly a secret that Raytheon and their peers love to throw money around in Washington. Why? Simple; war is good for business. If Drunk Uncle Sam is busy shooting missiles at the Chinese in the Pacific, then he’ll have to keep buying radar systems, ammo, and other such supplies from Boeing and Buddies. On its face, it’s solid reasoning. It’s also dead wrong.
If Donald Trump has shown anything during his presidency, it’s that he doesn’t give a single shit what Raytheon thinks. Case-in-point; Trump bombed Iran’s nuclear sites then pulled out so fast you’d think the Shia nation was Stormy Daniels. Trump did the same in 2020 back when Soleimani was assassinated. Trump has been met with cross-aisle scorn from Capitol Hill for this. But hey, it’s a good thing that now we all know who the warmongers really are.
Others will point to the fact that America has long-standing alliances in the Pacific as a reason we’ll get sucked into World War III in Taipei. In fairness, it’s easy to see why some would say that. Japan and/or South Korea would certainly get involved in Taiwan if the CCP were to invade, ditto for the Philippines. After all, they all have a vested interest in keeping Chinese aggression at bay. Japan and South Korea have shown warming relations despite past transgressions to further this end. On its face, it’s solid reasoning. It’s also dead wrong.
Why? Simple; America has had a checkered past with living up to our defense commitments in the last 100 years. We originally sat out WW2. We have been pretty hands-off in Ukraine thus far, and there is little appetite to get involved in Eastern Europe. In fact, Trump ran on a campaign promise to exit NATO entirely, or at least ensure our allies start ponying up a little more. We also haven’t done much to defend the Philippines in the South China Sea against Chinese territory stakes. So, traditional allyships is not a solid reason.
It’s the right thing to do? Yeah, that shit’s not going to fly. If that logic carried any weight, we’d be boots-on-the-ground in every conflict zone in the world right now. We would’ve invaded Venezuela in 2019, came to Ukraine’s defense in 2022, attacked Palestine in 2023, invaded Yemen in 2024, and so on. As you can see, we haven’t done any of that (nor should we).
“Seriously Dan, what reason is there left?” Sharpen your pitchforks for this one, Karen. The United States will defend Taiwan to eliminate our Chinese debt. Yep, there’s that screeching sound in the distance of 10,000 pitchforks getting sharpened. Hear me out. If America gets into a drawn-out shooting war against China and wins, the financial windfall would be fucking enormous. It would honestly be worth it as the upside would guarantee our place as the world’s lone superpower of the next century, possibly even more.
In case you haven’t noticed, we borrow a lot of money from the Chinese. If we intervene militarily and win, then we’d obviously have a seat at the negotiating table when the shooting stops. These discussions always turn financial, so let’s not pretend otherwise. There will be talks of rebuilding Taiwan, reparations to be made, and other such financial commitments to saddle onto the Chinese. This would be the moment to shed our debt obligations to the filthy Commies.
America would have a clear vested interest to bend a defeated China over a barrel and fuck them dry. It would send a message to the rest of the world that America is the Top Dog, full stop. A condition that America would foist upon the Chinese would be to forgive all of our outstanding debt to their regime. Whether it is as punishment for invading Taiwan, or as a discount on reparations they’d owe their island neighbor is truly dealer’s pick.
Once again, Uncle Sam would need to keep a skilled publicist on retainer during this turn of events. The bean-counters will need to have the fiscal benefit of wiping the mountain of bad debt off of the books made obvious to them. Anyone who opposes this debt-offloading would need to be slandered as being an openly Chinese Communist sympathizer. For added effect, we could paint left-leaning voices of dissent as hypocrites because they’re the debt-cancellation party.
Seriously, can you think of the benefits if we could finger-snap away that amount of debt? We’d save hundreds of billions of dollars per year on interest. As Elon points out, we spend more on interest than on defense. If we had a far smaller interest obligation, think of how much additional military might that we could pay for. Our liberal-minded friends could be coaxed into supporting this spoil of war negotiation term as being able to hypothetically fund universal healthcare or free college, UBI, free pillowcases for bank robbers, or whatever fucking flavor-of-the-month cause they want to recklessly spend on.
To the victor go the spoils…
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