now, i believe that i was misunderstood here. i never meant that
we should go "WE WILL KILL ALL INVADERS" or anything like
that.
c'mon, we want the thinking soldier, not the psycho soldier. what i
meant is that we CANNOT have a "we can't win so what's the pt?"
attitude towards national security.
yubbadoobs, in response, so what can the govt do to change this
psychological perception? well, the govt IS trying. ever seen the
"On Guard" video? pure govt propaganda. woah.....the Bushmaster
cannon looked damn impressive huh? but the thing is that people in
the streets don't understand war in the first place. they have this
tendency to look at the US. woah....big powerful military. so,
s'pore has no chance. wonderful logic huh?
i don't dare to say that i understand the subtleties of war
perfectly (if i do, then why the heck must i go for courses?), but
given my context, perhaps better than most pple.
but what do u expect the govt to tell u? sensitive information?
full display of our real capability and spark a crisis in the
region? notice, we buy submarines, malaysia immediately follow
suit. there's a subtle arms race in the region, we're all trying to
maintain the status quo, while quietly trying to get one up on the
rest. remember, we are NOT an aggressive nation. we merely make
others think twice abt wanting to be aggressive to us because it
probably will not be worth their trouble. if we're hurt bad, they
won't be much better off.
this is very close to the famous MAD syndrome which was the
cornerstone of the Cold War "stability". mutually assured
destruction. no one plays a fool coz each side can destroy the
other many times over.
anyway, the total defence campaign has been in place for years and
there is even a total defence day in sch. what else can the govt
do? anything more would be dismissed as PAP propaganda by many
people, esp the skeptics in this forum.
why must the SAF be ready? anyone knows how the 1961 Cuban Missile
Crisis was resolved? Kennedy refused to back down and started
preparations to invade Cuba and put the US Strategic Forces on
standby. Khrushchev backed down immediately. Why? coz spies told
Kennedy that the Russian nuclear forces were not ready for war in
the first place. Khrushchev couldn't push his luck coz he wasn't
ready to fight.
likewise, the SAF must be ready at all times. though i know that
some impt units still flunk their ATEC.
dil...we can't downsize the army. infantrymen die like flies
remember? technological force multipliers work least in the army.
at the end of the day, u still need the infantryman to charge and
fight. no diff from ancient days, except with more firepower.
rallying around an inspirational leader. yupz, very good idea. MG
Lim Chuan Poh is one good example. but critics will always say that
he's a SAFOS. most leaders are scholars and there's always some
kind of anti-scholar perception out there. just look at the
"Criteria in selection of SAF Officers" thread. what do they need
to do b4 pple respect them for their ability?
what will really hurt us? water, food, sea-lanes, trade, air-space.
i agree.
water. if our neighbours cut off our water, what will we do? i
dunno. will we fight for it? i have no idea. though i was once told
by a retired full colonel that LKY once said very strong words with
regards to this issue to the Malaysian CDF. no doubt, we can easily
seize the water plants and hold them, but is it the correct thing
to do? i really have no idea.
food. i know there's some high-level plan to maintain food supply
lines, but no idea of the details. even if i know, i can't tell
u.
trade. if we end up fighting, trade suffers. we lose, they lose
too. we might lose more, i admit.
sea-lanes. my speciality. dun worry too much, all i will say here
is losing control of the sea-lanes is one of S'pore's biggest
concerns. of course MINDEF has plans to keep the sea-lanes open. at
the moment, i doubt that we will really lose control. after 2009
when the frigates become fully operational, it becomes more
improbable.
air-space. the service i'm most proud of is the airforce. while i'm
not in it, i know that of all the 3 services, the airforce is the
one really world-class. it'll take more than a few MIG-29s which
can't fly to control our air-space.
