Thread by @WilliamYang120

After US Gen. Mike Minihan warned that #China could attack #Taiwan in 2025, some Air Force officer with Air Mobility Command told @Militarydotcom that the communication sparked immediate concern. military.com/daily-news/202…

"Some of my airmen are going to get scared when they read this memo," the officer said. "I felt like a random email blast to thousands of airmen was an inappropriate way to direct them to essentially prepare for war with a near-peer adversary."

"One Air Force C-17 Globemaster III pilot under Air Mobility Command, or AMC said Minihan's comments were unrealistic."

"I am not aware of a single incident where an aircrew member has shot someone in the head," the pilot told Military.com. "His direction completely misses the mark. AMC moves cargo; we are not SEAL Team 6."

The Air Mobility Command officer who voiced concern that the memo would alarm airmen under their command said fellow airmen noticed Minihan's use of "clip" instead of the proper term, a magazine, was "inaccurate" and that the advice to "aim for the head" was seen as "dramatic."

Additionally, marksmanship training in the military does not typically teach service members to aim for the head in combat but, rather, to aim for the center mass of a target to increase the chances of landing a shot.

Jude Blanchette, the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the nonprofit Center for Strategic and International Studies, told reporters during a press briefing Monday that Minihan's comments, ...

... as well as those from other officers, only confuse and stoke tensions with China unnecessarily.

"What we're effectively signaling is we have no idea, and I'm not sure we understand just how damaging that is," Blanchette said.

"But now having this menu option of various years, depending on the official that you're talking to, I think comes across as undermining the credibility of our statements and our assessments on precisely the relationship where your words matter."

@KennedyCSIS also told reporters that there's no benefit in saying a conflict could occur.

"I really think that those comments by the general are not consistent with the range of possible outcomes. And I think we are seemingly trying to talk ourselves into a conflict that doesn't need to occur."