This is something I've been theorizing about of late:
The United States might be plausibly able to conduct a war of secret intervention on, say, Taiwan's behalf, should Taiwan be attacked by China. In public, the US would announce its neutrality and intention to stay out of the conflict, but in secret, the US would have one or two submarines selectively sinking some of the most important Chinese warships, and have stealth aircraft strike a few of the most important Chinese targets - all in a way that would cause the Chinese to believe that it was the doing of the Taiwanese. The United States would never hit or strike China in a way that the Taiwanese were themselves not capable of (Taiwan has its own cruise missiles and so forth.)
The United States would not conduct B-2 strike deep into the heart of China, for instance, because that's something Taiwan is not capable of doing, and to do so would give away the fact that some nation other than Taiwan is fighting against China as well.
By the use of such strategy, the United States could conceivably get the best of both worlds: It could maintain somewhat neutral relations with China, an important trading partner, while still thwarting the Chinese attack of a US ally. In theory, stealth allows the element of anonymity and plausible deniability. But that's all in theory. |