Hot wars are no good. The biggies that include global powers throughout history share many common features. Loss of life can hamstring your nation's production and protection for a generation (see France after WWI). The financial cost is great enough to cripple even powerful nations (Japan, Great Britain and Germany in WWII). And the length of time required to defeat a powerful foe is demoralizing to citizens and combatants alike.
Cold wars however can be fought at a much lower cost. Requiring limited combatants in non-direct conflict results in little-to-no loss of life. The discreet nature of the attacks do little to national morale.
The Chinese foe we face today is keen to play the long game. They are not held hostage by shifting political winds or elections. They can afford to wait out problem administrations. They also understand the above and use it to reach for their ultimate goal of global superiority...not for their nation, but for the select few within the party.
It is understood that occupying the USA is neigh to impossible. We are too large, too diverse, too armed, and a citizenry that is too feisty. However...we are ruled by a political class that is vein, immoral, and cheap. The palace intrigue, compromised morality, and sinister behavior within our capital is so ubiquitous it is referred to as, "Hollywood for ugly people".
Our political class is the easiest, cheapest target to harm our nation. It also has exponential impact as these dregs impact policy across a vast nation they have no real connection to, and control the purse strings on the largest global budget.
A campaign to infiltrate, sabotage, or purchase loyalty within this body is a much more effective means of waging war than with standing armies. If we're to be overtaken, you'll likely never see a Chinese uniform standing guard in this country. It will simply be Americans doing it for them, whilst the citizenry remains unaware.
Remember the Podesta Wikileaks noting their desire for a compliant and unaware citizenry? Look it up! Such political aspirations are clearly shameful, but create a perfect environment for an enemy to exploit. Whether intentional or not, such a shared goal aids the enemies efforts.
For a relatively minor (in terms of human history) conflict in the middle east, the USA spent $5 trillion over the past 20 years. We sent traditional forces to occupy land that wasn't ours, and ultimately left, without a lot to show for it. It was very divisive within our country throughout and took the lives of many service members. War is really, really expensive.
Compare that to the cost of picking off Governors, and Senators for $20k to $200k a piece. Even at the high number, which I believe we've attached to GA Governor Kemp. You could purchase the loyalty/compliance of 25 MILLION government employees for $5t!! In this context, only a fool would ever fire a shot in a hot war. Cold war is more cost effective.
Baked into history are campaigns known as the 100-years war, the 30-years war, the 80-years war. Lets assume your ego or scale convinces you of ultimate victory, no matter the cost...when weighing options of attack, you can likely take far less time, at less financial cost, and without the loss of domestic morale and/or life. Again...only a fool would take the hot war route.
War evolves over time. It changes, and never goes back to the way it ways. Combatants learn on the fly with the implementation of new weaponry. In WWI, the poor men on the front lines were machine gun fodder as generals learned frontal assaults no longer worked at all. Trench warfare followed. Then artillery forced change once more.
Battleships were the most important piece of naval war. Then airplanes completely neutered them. Britain had the worlds greatest navy, but was untested against new advances. Italian planes blew them out of the water at a cost and efficiency that boggled the mind. From that moment, all knew that without naval aviation, the great battleships of just a few years prior were worthless.
Swords and shield fighting augmented by bows and arrows. Then muskets. Then cannons. The US built a massive base on a caribbean island to fight pirate ships, loaded with cannons. By the time it was finished, it was useless because of advances in artillery (Fort Jefferson, look it up!).
We are in another one of these moments in time. It is at the same time completely novel, and completely predictable when weighed against history.
This enemy, China, is purchasing our political class for laughably cheap amounts. This is true when weighed against the pride we ought have in our nation, and frankly, what the cost should be when weighed against similar costs of victory in hot war.
While we yearned to be left alone, those with ulterior motives filled the posts of our legislative branch. The enemies intend results are now being harvested. Our most basic birthrights are trampled; freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, election of our leaders -- all now relics of history.
What was paid for in blood over generations, has been handed over for pennies on the dollar. Who is to blame, the degenerates, or us for allowing it to happen?
Time.
I don’t have any of it. I run a small biz and have a wife and small kids. I don’t have time for pollsters.
I got called a couple weeks ago and tried to sit thru it. It was BRUTAL. They insist on reading all the stupid multiple choice options before letting me answer. They speak slowly and enter my answers even slower. They asked far too many questions.
I hung up after 26 minutes!! I had a kid fall and had to divert my attention somewhere useful.
Got called again yesterday with much less patience. Questioner was an idiot and could barely read his screen. I lasted 8 minutes.
No half assed productive person is sitting thru that. Angry, jobless, lefties...probably more likely to wait thru it like a good sheep.
Lefties are already oversampled and assuredly over represented with this idiotic and time consuming extraction.