Air Force general predicts war with China in 2025: 'I hope I am wrong'

[KellyinAvon]

This caught my attention for a couple reasons. A 4-star commander of a Major Command (echelon below HQ USAF: organize, train, equip) coming out with this is incredibly rare. By incredibly rare I mean this never happens.

Air Mobility Command: the guys who fly big planes that don't drop bombs (on purpose anyway.) Then I took a look at his bio:

10. July 2008–July 2009, Executive Officer to the Deputy Commander, U.S. Forces Korea, USAG Yongsan, South Korea

14. September 2013–June 2015, Deputy Director for Air and Cyberspace Operations, Headquarters Pacific Air Forces, Hawaii
15. June 2015–June 2017, Deputy Director for Operations, U.S. Pacific Command, Camp H. M. Smith, Hawaii
16. June 2017–August 2018, Chief of Staff, United Nations Command and U.S. Forces Korea, USAG Yongsan, South Korea
17. August 2018–January 2019, Chief of Staff, U.S. Forces Korea and U.S. Member to the United Nations Command Military Armistice Commission, USAG Humphreys, South Korea
18. January 2019–September 2019, Chief of Staff, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, Camp H. M. Smith, Hawaii
19. September 2019–August 2021, Deputy Commander, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, Camp H. M. Smith, Hawaii

Pacific Command (Unified Combatant Command) was renamed in 2018 to Indo-Pacific Command.

That is a whole lot of time in the Pacific Theater, especially for someone who didn't fly little pointy planes.

So does General Minihan get it, and he's willing to end his career by going public?

MIKE MINIHAN

Commander, Air Mobility Command

www.af.mil

Rep. McCaul on Air Force general’s prediction of 2025 war with China: 'I hope he’s wrong … I think he’s right'

After an Air Force general predicted that the U.S. will be at war with China in 2025, Rep. Michael McCaul said he hopes this will not be the case but believes it is likely.

www.foxnews.com

Air Force general predicts war with China in 2025: 'I hope I am wrong'

A four-star Air Force General predicted that the U.S. will be at war with China by 2025 and advised his commanders to prepare.

www.foxnews.com

 

[jwamplerusa]

This caught my attention for a couple reasons. A 4-star commander of a Major Command (echelon below HQ USAF: organize, train, equip) coming out with this is incredibly rare. By incredibly rare I mean this never happens.

Air Mobility Command: the guys who fly big planes that don't drop bombs (on purpose anyway.) Then I took a look at his bio:

10. July 2008–July 2009, Executive Officer to the Deputy Commander, U.S. Forces Korea, USAG Yongsan, South Korea

14. September 2013–June 2015, Deputy Director for Air and Cyberspace Operations, Headquarters Pacific Air Forces, Hawaii
15. June 2015–June 2017, Deputy Director for Operations, U.S. Pacific Command, Camp H. M. Smith, Hawaii
16. June 2017–August 2018, Chief of Staff, United Nations Command and U.S. Forces Korea, USAG Yongsan, South Korea
17. August 2018–January 2019, Chief of Staff, U.S. Forces Korea and U.S. Member to the United Nations Command Military Armistice Commission, USAG Humphreys, South Korea
18. January 2019–September 2019, Chief of Staff, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, Camp H. M. Smith, Hawaii
19. September 2019–August 2021, Deputy Commander, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, Camp H. M. Smith, Hawaii

Pacific Command (Unified Combatant Command) was renamed in 2018 to Indo-Pacific Command.

That is a whole lot of time in the Pacific Theater, especially for someone who didn't fly little pointy planes.

So does General Minihan get it, and he's willing to end his career by going public?

MIKE MINIHAN

Commander, Air Mobility Command

www.af.mil

Rep. McCaul on Air Force general’s prediction of 2025 war with China: 'I hope he’s wrong … I think he’s right'

After an Air Force general predicted that the U.S. will be at war with China in 2025, Rep. Michael McCaul said he hopes this will not be the case but believes it is likely.

www.foxnews.com

Air Force general predicts war with China in 2025: 'I hope I am wrong'

A four-star Air Force General predicted that the U.S. will be at war with China by 2025 and advised his commanders to prepare.

www.foxnews.com

Wow. I too hope he is wrong, but my guess is he simply said the quiet part out loud.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Do we really think China is going to want to kill its cash cow (the U.S.)?

 

[smokingman]

The fact this has made mainstream news paints an ominous future.

U.S. general predicts war with China in 2025, tells officers to get ready

“I hope I am wrong. My gut tells me will fight in 2025," said Gen. Mike Minihan in a memo sent to the officers he commands and obtained by NBC News.

www.nbcnews.com

 

[Frosty]

Do we really think China is going to want to kill its cash cow (the U.S.)?

On the flip side where are we going to get all our stuff???

 

[DoggyDaddy]

On the flip side where are we going to get all our stuff???

Fair point.

 

[indykid]

They will wait until 2025 to make sure their trade partner Biden Family is no longer in office.

Somehow I can’t imagine China risking cutting ties with their cash cow.

 

[Twangbanger]

Air Force General thinks we need to spend more on readiness ???!!!

 

[caverjamie]

The party will be over if that happens, not going to be good for anyone. I figured they would take Taiwan soon and then we would be involved.

 

[jwamplerusa]

This correlates with what Peter Zeihan has been saying relative to demographic and economic challenges in China, which makes it slightly more believable, and scary.

In short, Zeihan believes the Chinese will not have the military age males to take Taiwan by the 2030s. He also seems to think their economy and political system will need an external boogyman to prevent internal unrest soon.

I'm not sure I buy it, but serious people in our military listen too him.

Sadly, like Russia, totalitarian regimes have a history of lashing out at others to prevent internal unrest or introspection.

Scares the s*** out of me.

 

[Creedmoor]

Infantry Marines were told maybe 2 1/2 years ago that they were going to beef up and ramp up more grunts in and around the Asian community and become more agile, expeditionary and mobile.
A bunch of changes the last few in Japan and Okinawa.

 

[DustEm]

Well considering we gave away all our military hardware, it will take that long to resupply again.

 

[Thor]

Do we really think China is going to want to kill its cash cow (the U.S.)?

They are communists, to understand them you need to think like a ChiCom. The money they get works as a placebo for their peasants. They could care less about money or the economy...they only want to rule and they think everything is already theirs it's just that we are standing in their way.

They just see their current cash cow becoming their future milk cow. They also probably see that they have a window of opportunity to work towards achieving their goals that may close very shortly.

They are our enemies and we are fools not to treat them as such. Stop buying their crap, stop sending them food.

 

[yotehunt]

SAC ATTACK. MITO…. HACK

 

[bobzilla]

SAC ATTACK. MITO…. HACK

 

[yotehunt]

 

[BE Mike]

Having seen what our military top commanders did in the war in Viet Nam, I have little faith in their crystal balls. Putting stars on someone, doesn't make him or her a fortune teller or necessarily a good leader. At that level, they are politicians and we know how competent politicians are.

 

[BiscuitsandGravy]

Interesting vid on Ward Carroll's channel discussing just this...

 

[Thor]

View attachment 251878

Also: https://theaviationgeekclub.com/mit...forming-a-minimum-interval-takeoff-departure/

 

[1nderbeard]

Air Force General thinks we need to spend more on readiness ???!!!

my thoughts exactly.