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Yes, America’s Pentagon. The “brilliant” leaders of America’s Military Industrial Complex who, as we keep reporting, have an unblemished post World War II track record of costly, deadly military failures were blindsided by China’s military advancements we have long been forecasting.
Last week, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark A. Milley said that China’s successful test of a hypersonic missile came close to being a “Sputnik moment”—referring to Russia’s launch of the first artificial satellite that surprised the world over 60 years ago.
China tested at least two hypersonic missiles during the summer months, including one that was considered a success, landing within two dozen miles of its target, which we had long forecast would happen. The Financial Times, which was first to report on the tests said they took the “U.S. intelligence by surprise.”
Milley, who has recently faced Republican critics over his contact with the Chinese during the Trump presidency, was a guest on billionaire David Rubenstein’s show on Bloomberg. The Pentagon has been cagey on information about the tests, but Milley seemed to be more forthcoming.
“I don’t know if it’s quite a Sputnik moment, but I think it’s very close to that,” he said. He called the tests a “very significant technological event” and said the test “has all our attention.”
He said Beijing’s military capabilities “are much greater than that” single test and pointed out that the military is “expanding rapidly in space, in cyber and then in the traditional domains of land, sea, and air.”
The tests come at a time when tensions in the Sea of China seem to be increasing by the day.
Trends Journal has reported extensively on Taiwan and the possibility of a military confrontation with China. (See “TAIWAN MILITARY RAMP-UP WILL NOT STOP CHINA,” “CHINA FLEXES MUSCLE ON TAIWAN. WHO WILL STOP THEM?” “U.S. GENERAL DECLARES U.S. “READY” TO DEFEND TAIWAN IF CHINA INVADES,” and “CHINA TO TAKE TAIWAN: A MATTER OF TIME”.)
The news of the hypersonic missile launches dropped shortly after the Pentagon’s former software chief told the FT that Beijing has already won the artificial intelligence race with the U.S. and will likely further its lead in other technologies in the future.
“We have no competing fighting chance against China in 15 to 20 years,” Nicholas Chaillan told the paper. “Right now, it’s already a done deal; it’s already over in my opinion. Whether it takes war or not is kind of anecdotal.”
The New York Times reported that American officials identified two key moments from the successful test: the fact that the missile completed a partial orbit of the earth and the fact that it “could plow a suddenly shifting path, maneuvering in ways that would render all current U.S. missile defenses obsolete.”
These defenses are positioned across the U.S. facing west and north. The new technology could allow China to launch from any direction. The paper said these defenses “might fail to defeat an attack from the south.”
The Times said the launch could introduce a new arms race between the two countries, but it seems China has a significant head start.
China has denied the two launches. The Economist reported that both China and Russia are building these weapons to penetrate any “current or future American defenses.”
Tong Zhao, a senior fellow in Carnegie’s Nuclear Policy Program based at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy, told the magazine that Beijing has been focused on its nuclear development because it forces Washington to “accept peaceful co-existence.”
TREND FORECAST: As the saying goes, “Generals are always fighting the last war.” And America’s post WWII war track record is an unblemished failure. From their weaponry to tactics, the U.S. military have exemplified a common misconception and/or misunderstanding of technology and development in warfare… regardless of who they are fighting.
And the U.S. $778 billion 2022 military budget of more tanks, planes, ships and antiquated artillery for the 21st century further exemplifies their backwardness.
In addition, as we have forecast, war with China will be the War that ends all wars.
And if America stays on the trend lines drawn since the War on Terror launched by US President George W. Bush following 9/11, it will be the last world war. As we have quoted Albert Einstein, “I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”
Track Record of Failure
What had begun with Bush’s war against Afghanistan in 2001 to “find those evildoers… to smoke them out” was followed by his Iraq War in 2003 to overthrow Saddam Hussein for possessing weapons of mass destruction he did not possess, and ties to Al Qaeda that he did not have.
In 2011, under the guise of a humanitarian mission, US President Barack Obama and his allies launched a war that overthrew Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, leaving what was once the most prosperous nation in Africa in ruin, chaos, despair… a breeding ground for terrorists.
Following Libya, Obama and his coalition launched another “humanitarian” mission to overthrow Bashar al-Assad, the president of Syria. Although Assad remains in office, Syria has been destroyed by “moderate rebels” armed and funded by the US and its allies. Over 350,000 Syrians have been killed, half of Syria’s population displaced and some 5.6 million refugees have fled the bloodshed.
TRENDPOST: The Pentagon on Friday announced the U.S. military successfully tested a hypersonic booster rocket motor just a week after one failed after a launch from Kodiak, Alaska, Reuters reported. The U.S. says it will conduct a test—with a weapon—sometime before autumn 2022. The report pointed out that “defense contractors hope to capitalize as they make the weapons and develop new detection and defeat mechanisms.”
While much of the world’s population suffers from the destruction of the COVID-19, which has destroyed lives and livelihoods of billions, politicians continue to steal more of We the People’s money to enrich the military-industrial complex. (See “MILITARY SPENDING INCREASES AS ECONOMIES DECLINE.”)
The Reuters report pointed out that top arms makers like Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman all used their hypersonic weapons programs to lead off their quarterly earnings calls last week.
TREND FORECAST: We maintain our forecast of “The Rise of China” as one of the Top Trends of 2021. We predicted that the 21st century will be the Chinese century because the business of China is business; the business of America since World War II has been war.
Both China’s manufacturing abilities and tech innovation were at third world levels before Bill Clinton and George W. Bush brought the communist nation into the World Trade Organization at the turn of the century.
It was U.S. and European companies that exported their manufacturing facilities and high technology to China so they could use its cheap labor to make their products… and sell them back to the citizens around the world at much higher prices so they could boost their profit margins.
Thus, with the U.S. workforce having slid into the service sector economy—working at Walmarts, janitorial jobs, hospitality sector, restaurant workers, packing and shipping for Amazon, stocking shelves and cashiers at Dollar General, Kroger’s etc.—what was once a nation of manufacturing innovation and creativity has descended into Slavelandia. (Read “SLAVELANDIA: RICH GET RICHER, POOR GET POORER.” 13 Oct 2020)
As we have long forecast, the only way the United States—which is rich in natural and human resources—will halt its economic decline is to become a self-sustaining economy.
Therefore, in the absence of a Renaissance whereby the people raise their emotional, physical, moral and spiritual levels to their highest degrees, the country will continue its “end-of-empire” decline.