09-23-2017, 02:04 PM
(This post was last modified: 09-23-2017, 02:06 PM by Cynic Hero '86.)
But Putin especially and also Xi somewhat are supporting North Korea because they think the US will back down. The reason they think this is because the US usually has backed down when North Korea acts up. If we actually launch war against north Korea, Putin would probably back down immediately since the fundamental assumption behind his support for kim-jong-un would have just been proven false. Regarding China, the Chinese were able to rationally look at India's capabilities and defuse the situation (at doklam). They therefore would be able to look at the US resolve and back down. This does not even necessarily mean that China has to give up potential military expansion, they would just have to expand in directions away from the US and its treaty allies (most likely into interior Asia). This may still lead to a WW3 but that would be a very different war than the one that is currently more likely.
