An agreement and a WTFO?
Data-lynx,
I agree with you.
My point to N5528P's seemingly anti-military post was that ships HAVE been sunk before from aircraft. Even if Taiwan muffed sinking this derelict, ships definitely face a threat from aircraft attack and therefore, maybe there is a reason for having a military.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To Helpful Stacker,
Hmmm, perhaps a bit of anti-American bias in your post's facts?
Sure, the US traded with Germany for far too long, but we did start escorting convoys way out into the Atlantic and lost several of our own destroyers before we got into the fray, as well as a few other good things.
And we did get our bottoms 'spanked,' with a sneak attack (not sure the UK gave us the intel on that one - thought you guys had the German codes and we did the Japanese, but I am not a SIGINT historian...)
Oh, and was it then better to get spanked with full knowledge of a war like happened in Singapore, the sinking of Repulse and Prince of Wales, etc, etc?
My apologies to those who either fought or had family who did for those battles; they were brave men. But the blatant "See how bad/evil/stupid the Yanks always are" wore thin.
Oh, and thanks to the UK for centimetric radar's cavity magnatron, substantial help on the bomb, and lots of other good things to include standing alone until we did get into the fray.