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Notes -
My guess: It’s 2
This isn’t about getting recruitment numbers up. It’s about getting recruitment demographics aligned with the other government industries. What’s the one thing that could overthrow the regime? The military. What if Jan 6 had explicit military support? Civilian military leadership is terrified that all the Pepe-loving edgelords will decide to join the military because it’s the only “based” profession left. This is their way of making the military “cringe” enough to prevent that.
Germany is an occupied country. If there was a reactionary military coup in Berlin we'd end up with Fort Sumter 2: Bavarian Boogaloo. If the US Military seized power in America who's going to stop them? Will there be a UN peacekeeping operation to land forces in New York and Los Angeles? Will China declare a special military operation? Will the UK launch a preemptive nuclear strike on military targets to safeguard Canadian sovereignty?
Canada and Mexico are literally the only countries on earth that could pose a serious military threat to the continental US. And even then, only if the US military was so caught up in other things (like a civil war) that they couldn't respond. Last I checked, China doesn't even have enough amphibious vehicles to transport a full battalion, let alone what they would need to invade across the Pacific.
Assessment of Chinese amphibious transport capacity has always been complex (since there's a bunch of dual-purpose civilian transports built to quasi-military standards that also participate in exercises but don't come under an order of battle). But a battalion? A single Type 75 landing ship can carry a battalion and they've got three.
By broader estimates, China has nearly as much sealift capacity as the US: https://warontherocks.com/2021/08/mind-the-gap-how-chinas-civilian-shipping-could-enable-a-taiwan-invasion/
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… the specific what?
Well that's an embarrassing typo, fixed
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Probably "Pacific" + autoincorrect to "specific."
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I don't think that could ever happen. Things are not nearly bad enough for the rank-and-file to overcome all their indoctrination and defect. And of course top military would never support it - why erode the system of which they are part and one of the major (trillions of $$$) beneficiaries?
It won't happen because the military takes steps to prevent it. Suppose they really do care about what they claim to care about and did what would actually maximize recruitment. What if they went full Andrew Tate? Appeal to the huge demographic of lonely detached loser young men. Run commercials featuring beautiful young Ukrainian refugees finding a new life outside a NATO military base. Have a few "information warfare" agents post stories about "little brown fucking machines" on those creepy reddit threads. That would solve the recruitment problem real quick, but then you'd have other problems.
What is it you think the military "claims to care about"
lonely detached loser young men generally make terrible soldiers as Russia is currently learning the hard way. The US military has historically always made pretty extensive efforts to correct such deficiencies where found. Why do you think we pay 19 year-olds to get married and tie promotion prospects to physical fitness?
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