Yeah, pretty sure they understood.

Ignoring for a moment that an organization that's used hot-button issues for longer than the span of one administration (and for much the same purposes) is part of a group that's bellyaching about being made to face just what mess they're capable of, there's something in the recommendations that sounds like it's meant to be reassuring, but holds a view I disagree with.

More than enough people are aware that rapid advancement in any field takes more than mimicry. A state with a long history of scholarship, one that finds itself lacking in, let's say, technology, knows to seek out those who have the experience they need, learn from them, and build on what's been learned. (微软.) If such a state can do that in one field, what's to stop that state from doing the same in another, especially when one of theirs very literally wrote the book on the art?

A large modern military without recent combat experience is at a disadvantage against one that has experience, I'll agree. However, contrary to a recent headline (the friendship's not that new, OpNet), that state has developed connections with experienced counterparts alongside whom it can train - there's a SFW-ish video showing downtime with a group of training partners, one that echoes the stock photo I used. (On a side note, how's that new-ish dairy industry doing?)

This is a season for thoughts more cheery than these, I know, but a weather eye on this issue in the midst of the revelry is something I still think is warranted.

Tangent - if dairying does go down around here, would one still say "cheese" for photos?