Let me toss out, for discussion and possible shredding
, a few observations. First, the US and its allies can, in general, schmuck any other coalition in a direct, heads on, "traditional" combat scenario. By analogy, this is similar to a fighter who can beat anyone using the Marquis of Queensbury's rules. So, having strolled down to the docks, this fighter "knows" that they can beat anyone as long as they play by the rules. So, why would anyone do that?
Taking this up to the current situation. China cannot win an all out "total war" against he US and its allies, therefore it won't fight one. The first thing it will do is attack, indirectly, the US's major strength, which happens to be economics not combat (look at WW II - the US had pretty mediocre equipment, but it had a
lot of it). So, in this "hypothetical" scenario, China will encourage the shift of manufacturing away from the US and, increasingly, make the US consumers dependent upon China for their standard of living. The next step will be to create a fifth column within the US that takes advantage of the factionalization of American politics, and create major/support major lobby organizations to encourage elected officials to disregard this economic penetration. Finally, China thinks in decades and centuries, not 2 - 4 year terms, so they can afford a policy of gradually wearing away US resolve to hold certain positions. If the US threatens to "fight fair", China could, without firing a shot, induce another major depression in the entire Western world simply by dumping its US currency reserves (currently several trillion dollars) and jacking up the export duties on its manufactured goods.
This, for China, is "conventional" direct warfare (read Sun Tsu). In effect, China "gets" DIME because it has been their model of conflict for over 2500 years.
The point behind that little excursion is simple. It's not enough to maintain a strong "conventional" force or to develop a really good COIN force - these have to be integrated in such a manner that it covers and contests the DIME model of China and other models implicit in other power blocks.
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