Strategos

Let us imagine that someone wants a war but does not want a war because the enemy is still very strong. The process for winning this not-a-war is one of attrition. Keep distracting and causing your enemy to use up materiel, manpower and funds on a constant basis. Unbalance their government and make sure the rate of intrusions is such as to causes repeated scrambles, repeated use of expensive weapons, and keep it up for months, years even, as you are highly confident that NOTHING will be done in retribution since those that lead the enemy are vassals.

Encourage other wars on other fronts, same which will again keep drawing on funds and materiel of the enemy. Keep feeding equipment and funds to those other countries that are engaged in such wars, matters not where, Africa, ME, Ukraine, S. America it all serves to distract and hollow out the ability of your enemy. Supply the drug trade with ever cheaper and devastating chemicals precursors for the manufacture of deadly opioids, fund the gangs and producers at the enemy doorstep. Fund the waves of illegal invaders flooding the enemy and all countries of the west, erstwhile allies of your enemy, causing massive drains on resources and mounting debt, not to mention infiltration opportunities for your agents and others planning harm..

Buy all resources you can from the warring factions that engage your enemy, this funds them and provides supplies for the continuing development of your own forces. Buy up as much of the petroleum reserves of you enemy as possible. Same goes for other resources, own the supply chain, the food production and the raw material sources needed by your own military industrial complex. Engineer biological weapons and encourage policies by the enemy that will decimate their experienced military forces, along with every other important political structure. Even better when compromised members of the enemy assist and fund it.

Step up the distraction tempo, forcing assets to be moved away from your real targets, leave them weakened and far away from supply depots. Corrupt the supply chain with fake and sub standard parts for critical applications. Encourage the “green” revolution, seeing it is not cost effective, destroys local wealth and forces dependence on your own manufacturing capacity while ruining that of the enemy. Fund any and all political movements that destroy the fabric of society and the rule of law, corrupt the youth with social media honey. Cause increasing cost of oil by purchasing ever larger amounts on the spot market, engage in long term fixed price contracts where possible thus depriving others of the resource.

Control the choke points for commerce such as the Panama Canal, the Suez, the straits of Malacca and other critical shipping lanes. Constantly work at taking over land for resources and for use as staging ground for your own military through the Belt and Road initiative, first funding then causing corrupt governments to fall under your control.

Continue building ever greater numbers of ICBM’s with nuclear ordnance along with air, surface and sub-sea forces. Do all this all in parallel, constantly while you prepare for the first objective, the taking of Taiwan. within a couple more years, perhaps just before the present government of your enemy is due to change, launch the invasion as they will do little to resist while having ever fewer resources to counter a massive force crossing the Fujian strait.

Anticipated result will be paralysis of the western nations, a token show of support for Taiwan and a major re- ordering of the power structures in the 21st Century. As a side benefit, the very real possibility of the collapse of the United States and the EU as a cohesive units.

Strategos – the Greek word for “general of the army” and source for the concepts of strategy and planning. We apparently have scant while our adversaries are so engaged. Enjoy the decline while we note it is not only China pursuing these goals, there are others much closer to home.