Comment Re:Can we stop pretending this isn't low level war (Score 4, Interesting) 81
It is simply stunningly illogical for China to behave this way against such petty targets. It makes absolutely NO sense for them to flaunt their ability and willingness to do so...
Just like it makes no sense for Americans to bomb the Bikini Atoll, or run new ships on trips around the world. The goal isn't to destroy a Pacific paradise or to wear out the engines, but rather to announce to the political world that we have a new capability, and we're ready to use it as we see fit.
The "petty targets" may be convenient places to point this "Great Cannon"... They provide a noticeable target, and apparently can be analyzed enough to provide some basic details to the rest of the world. Assuming China is behind the attack, we now know that China can run at least this level of attack, and there's no reason to expect that in a full-scale conflict, it wouldn't be turned against more serious targets. We don't know whether the attack can be made even bigger, or if it has different operational modes, or even how quickly such an operation can scale... and that's enough uncertainty to make it a deterrent weapon. It's all political posturing, and from outward appearances, it seems China is showing itself to be fairly powerful, but not yet openly aggressive.
Contrast that with North Korea, which has persistently demonstrated impotent aggression, and our main concern is that they might actually develop a real offensive capability that affects us.
...as the simple course of action the entire reset of the world would take is a simple matter of NULL routing China and going on about their daily business...
...except that a significant part of their daily business has now been null-routed. It's going to be hard to keep that great American economy moving when manufacturers can't contact their contracted suppliers. Without that continuous economic movement, we're facing yet another financial crash, which the United States government probably doesn't want to have happen just yet.
your 'war' would be over before anyone really cared.
On the contrary, an openly-hostile and traceable act (like cleanly disconnecting a major nation) would be the first strike in a bigger escalating conflict, as each side accuses the other of being the guy who really started the fight. Throw in a few false-flag operations and stage a few "exposed" false-flag operations, and it's not a very big leap to having a real war with real weapons and real death.
Frankly, I'd rather just have the political games.