Singapore could not sustain a protracted siege; they simply do not grow enough food and rely (currently) on fresh water being pumped from Malaysia.
The country’s entire economy is based on the fact it remains an attractive place for foreign investment, remove thus through a sustained terrorist campaign or missile strikes (similar to Hezbollah’s attacks on Israeli) and you will witness an economic collapse. Singapore maintains huge financial reserves, but this would drain away pretty quickly if investor confidence disappeared and multinationals moved their regional headquarters to Hong Kong or elsewhere.
Investors will not rush out in a mass exodus as you potray. Even Israel maintains a viable economy of sorts. The economy would not simply shut down because investments are not weighed simply on the threat of a potential terrorist strike but the company`s bottom-line; money to be made. Singaporeans have been living under the spectre of a terrorisk strike since September 11 but yet the current economy is booming; better than any of her immediate neighbours.
The hardest thing to do is to lay seige on an island-nation which has an arguably powerful navy and air-force. What are sea-corridors and air-corridors for? So long as these are maintained, food supply will be maintained.
And what are you talking about ? Singapore is reaching near self sufficiency in water supply through various means; Newater, De-salination, the water catchment areas, etc. That is why the current water agreement with Malaysia is allowed to lapse.
There are other reasons as well.
Having spent many years here it would take a relatively small incident to cause a mass exodus of expatriates, risk tolerance is incredibly low when benchmarked against say the expatiate community in Jakarta, who are used to an ever changing threat level.
Have you not contradicted yourself here? You had initially posited that investors will leave Singapore in a mass exodus due to terrorist strikes among other things. Now you`re saying the expatriates in Indonesia are not war-averse because thay have got used to the ever-changing threat level. I suppose the investors in Indonesia must have been mentally programmed so that they are different from the investors from elsewhere.
It is very easy to talk in generalities. But if you look are to insert realistic scenarios, they become less viable.
If you try amphib landings your LSTs will be sunk before they leave port. Even if you can insert Kopassus they will never be able to cripple the Singaporian AF. They have bases throughout the South Pacific sharing bases with several countries. Indonesia would have half a dozen enemies arrayed against her.