Asturias :-
history doesn't repeat itself exactly Chug.
I can remebr Cho En Lai was asked if they intended to invade India in '62 - he looked at the reporter and said "are you crazy? Why would we want to takeover another 500 million people (as it was in those days)? - Don't you think we have enough on our hands at home?"
The uniforms differ, as do the armbands and martial music I'll grant you, but the knock on the door at 0300 has the same result to all intents and purposes. This isn't China we have to face up to, it's the CCP. As to reassuring quotes from its leaders, Herr Shicklgruber told us that the
Sudetenland was his last territorial claim. Didn't quite work out quite like that though, did it? When your neighbour starts frontier incidents best to take it as a prelude for something bigger. Alternatively, bury your head in the sand until it all goes away. It nearly got to Uncle Joe's dacha last time.
I agree that history doesn't repeat itself exactly. No-one says it does. But if we don't learn from it then it probably will repeat itself, exactly or not.
Time for a SE Asian NATO?