Imagine that it’s the year 2034. China is well ahead of the US in cyber-warfare. It manages to “blind” an American jet and bring it robotically to enemy turf, capturing the pilot. The Chinese then sink a few American warships they think are too close to their shores, and soon send 37 more to the bottom. The American President feels she has to reply strongly and, lacking conventional naval forces under the circumstances, nukes a Chinese city. That country responds with nuclear devastation of San Diego and Galveston.
India, which has quietly become a greater military superpower than any outsider had realized, now takes a novel approach to achieve peace: that country sinks a Chinese aircraft carrier, wipes a squadron of American warplanes out of the air, and tells both belligerent parties to knock it off or India will smoke both of their countries. An uneasy truce follows and rebuilding begins in the two devastated and humiliated nations.
It’s a good read because co-author Elliot Ackerman is a skilled and accomplished novelist.
It’s a scary read because the other co-author, Jim Stavridis, is described as a retired four-star admiral of the United States Navy and former Supreme Allied Commander at NATO.
If someone like Stavridis thinks this scenario is plausible, and he obviously does, anyone should be alarmed. It is probably time to start asking Presidential candidates where they stand on getting the US ahead in the cyber-warfare arena.
The book is simply titled “2034: A Novel of the Next World War” and was copyrighted in 2021. I understand that there is now a sequel titled “2054” by the same authors.
I’ll be at the bookstore.
American’s do not have hypersonic missiles, nor are they able to intercept them. Game, set, match if they start anything.
We do possess the Long Range Hypersonic Weapon aka the Dark Eagle. Intercepting them? Not sure about that.
Ah, Mas, the book title is 2034. Nice to know I’m not the only one who has wayward fingers on the keyboard. I did confirm the title.
The book cover says “2034” not “2024”.
Since the dawn of the atomic age and the possession of enough weapons to make all-out war feasible, there has been a debate about whether there is a firewall between limited use of nuclear weapons and a spasm war leading to total destruction. There is only one way to find out and I don’t want to.
While I doubt that the sinking of ships leads to first use by the US, the situation in Ukraine is much more dangerous. All that NATO military hardware is getting into Ukraine by some route and I would bet it is by rail via Lviv/Lwov/Lemberg. A rail yard is something the perfect target for a small nuke. Suppose Putin fulfills his threat. Then what do we do? Ukraine is not a NATO nation so there is no treaty obligation. Do we or perhaps the lunatics in the UK reciprocate. The Russian equivalent of Lviv is probably Rostov which is Russia proper and a rail bottleneck. Then what?
Mas, in 1990, Jerry and Sheron Ahern wrote a book titled The Freeman. I’ve read
it several times over the years. Fiction for sure but you might enjoy it if you haven’t
already read it.
You think THAT’S scary???
Only the sitting USA President can call for use of nuclear weapons. He gets military advice if anyone launches toward us ( 14 minutes from Russia). At most, that’s 14minutes to retaliate. I’ve no idea about an India launch.
p.s. Joe Biden has sole authority.
Now are you scared? How about K?
“The American President feels she…..”
Put the conversation down and step away.
Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War
Equally frightening. China commandeers much of the Pacific Fleet using malware embedded in chips purchased from China through the supply chain. Most Navy combat ships and aircraft are industrial control systems with arms and if they become enemy assets through cyber attacks, we are, well you know, f……
This sounds similar to several of the books I have read from James Rosone and Miranda Watson. Fiction based on realistic possible (probable?) scenarios. Sounds very interesting. I’ll check it out.
Thanks for the suggestion, Mas — you make very good ones! In a similar vein…
Oliver North wrote an excellent series of four novels; Newman is the main character. Mission Compromised is the first in the series. Heroes Proved is the last, and (in my opinion) the best. (It could be read alone, but it’s best in the context of the others, all of which I enjoyed.) Heroes Proved is set in 2032. It reminded me of what Asimov supposedly once said: “I write science fiction to show what could happen.”
China has begun restricting the exports of strategic minerals, most recently antimony. Unless the US begins to produce these messages breaks ourselves, or sources them from a friendly country, we will find ourselves at a severe strategic disadvantage. The Dems can bluster, whine, and send all the angry postcards they want, but without sufficient stockpiles of advanced weapons and ammunition we will be a toothless tiger.
Cyber warfare is going on right now. It is not just fiction. Here are a couple of examples:
1) Computers crashed all around the World on the day AFTER the Republican Convention concluded. The problem was traced to an “innocent” software update released by the Cyber Company Cloudstrike. Note that this is the same “Cloudstrike” that investigated the DNC server break-in back in 2016. The same firm that blamed it on the “Russians” which was later used to set up the whole “Russia, Russia, Russia” hoax to undercut President Trump’s first term. Cloudstrike has been a tool and supported of the Democrat Party from the beginning. Do you really think it was just a coincidence that Cloudstrike crashed servers all around the World on the day after the Republican Convention wrapped up? Or was it a way to divert media attention onto a new story and take the Republicans off the news cycle? See this link:
https://apnews.com/article/crowdstrike-tech-outage-microsoft-windows-falcon-8fe725037ab975e011b2cfad67b17c0f
2) This example is hot off the news today. See this link:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/cyber-attack-many-killed-2750-wounded-as-pagers-explode-in-lebanon/ar-AA1qIXTo
How about that? Cyber warfare that racks up real life, flesh-and-blood casualties.
Don’t kid yourself. Cyber warfare is just another front in the fight for our Republic.
Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal had an article by Walter Russell Mead on how unprepared is the US to deal with an impending WW3. It is well worth reading.
Obama/Biden/Harris have taken an apologetic, appeasing approach to foreign relations with our most strident opponents. Biden/Harris relaxed sanctions on Iran, allowing it to finance Hamas’ October attack on Israel as well as Hezbollah’s and the Houthi’s rocket attacks and, most importantly, Iran’s own nuclear program.
Now the administration wants to re-kindle a nuclear accord that Iran has never honored in the first place. Don’t forget that Iran is led by a group that views the precipitation of Armageddon as its holy duty.
WW2 was so inconceivable to some folks in the close aftermath of WW1 that the US was isolationist, the British were appeasers and the Russians were collaborators with Axis powers.
The Biden/Harris foreign policy’s naivete is akin to Neville Chamberlain on steroids. China, Russia, Iran and North Korea are forming the New Axis. Harris is incompetent at foreign policy and will likely prove incompetent as Commander-in-Chief, if given the chance. Bullies will become more aggressive until their nose is bloodied.
We should all be very concerned. Pray for our nation and the free nations of the world. Oh, and funding a military build up would be nice, too.
Si vis pacem, para bellum.
On a less depressing note: Go see the movie “Reagan”, it is uplifting and just plain a great movie.
I vote for Iran as the nation most likely to use a nuclear weapon. Glenn Beck taught me about their apocalyptic belief in “The Twelfth Imam” a.k.a. “The Mahdi.” You correctly mentioned this.
I am sure Netanyahu and the Mossad are watching Iran’s nuclear program. Israel cannot allow Iran to get a nuke, because Israel is target #1 and we are target #2. Our government and our tax dollars are financially supporting Iran.
Yes, go watch “Reagan.” My only criticism is that Reagan was better looking than Dennis Quaid, but the movie is excellent anyway.
Could you remind me which candidate at the debate wouldn’t say he wanted ukraine to win?
Neither India or China have shown signs of significant military competence, so until they get a few brushfire wars under their belts I don’t think any major sustainable action will be possible by either party. They’ve still got a lot to work out operationally, doctrinally, and especially logistically, and much of their tech is unproven.
On the other hand if you always prepare for your enemy to perform to their expectations rather than yours, you’ll never be caught underestimating them.
Especially as regards naval war. There are nations that are seapower states, notably Britain. There are continental powers that have had success at sea, notably the US and Rome. There are land powers that have had success at sea and then abandoned it like Spain, Portugal and Ming China. And then there are land powers that have tried to go to sea and failed. France, Germany, Russia 1.0. China, India and Russia 2.0 are probably in the last two groups. When his staff urged him to abandon British troops on Crete because of the aerial risk, Admiral Cunningham responded that it takes 3 years to build a ship and 300 years to build a navy.
Other than Michael S, Rogers, call me real unimpressed by our current crop of military ‘leaders’ and ‘experts’.
China’s been ready to smack us for years, they’ll decide the ‘when’.
https://nexttobagend.blogspot.com/2020/08/and-now-for-something-little-different.html
China has always played the long game. They don’t have elections where they have to court public opinion and the driving policy never changes. Their policy is always to further the position of China. Yeah, they’ll “help” other countries but there’s gonna be a collection on the debt down the road. Failure to repay is gonna be seriously expensive.
Non Chinese are always going to be foreign devils.
While the concentration of the USMC on the western Pacific may be a good idea, implementation is an enormous issue. It isn’t like a fleet can pop up on the horizon without warning like in the 1940s.
Dr. Peter Pry taught that cities will not be primary targets in a nuclear war. He believed whoever strikes first must totally wipe out the enemy’s nuclear weapons during a first strike. Otherwise, the victim nation will respond with nukes on the aggressor. Nuking a city would be a waste of a bomb in that case. Our submarines, missile silos, and bombers would have to be destroyed, if the enemy wants to keep us from striking back.
My guess is that the easiest way to destroy America would be if our power grid could be knocked out for a year. We would then destroy ourselves, because we cannot live without electricity. I am a Doomsday Prepper, but I doubt I could last for a year.