Capture might not be the aim. The coming decades will see anonymous effective asymmetric warfare with USA infrastructure and the USA political establishment as prime targets. That's the big concern.
A new cold war effectively, but with the goal of cementing local power.
That is a very real risk. Action -> reaction.
Huh... they better build some readily-available hyper-powerful infrastructure, pronto, or that next election could hand power to folks that don't have the best interest of the country in mind:
https://thedreydossier.substack.com/p/trump-isnt-building-a-...