Horizontal.

This is coolbert:

The threat awesome but can be countered?

See these two previous blog entries here and here as pertinent to the topic.

USUALLY IF SOMETHING SOUNDS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE IT IS NOT TRUE.

Again from the Internet web site of Bloomberg and the article by Hal Brands.

"The Too-Good-to-Be-True Way to Fight the Chinese Military"

“'Horizontal escalation' is a new strategy to shift a war to the enemy’s weak spots. Unfortunately, it won’t work on its own."

"An American war against China or Russia would be truly awful. Even if the U.S. won — no sure thing — it could well suffer costs and casualties that would make the toll of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars seem minor by comparison. So is there a way the U.S. could stymie a Chinese attack in the Pacific, or a Russian land-grab in Eastern Europe, without having to defeat enemy forces head-on?"

READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE. EXPLAINS IN DETAIL ALL ASPECTS OF HORIZONTAL ESCALATION.

coolbert.