Originally posted by: LegendKiller
Originally posted by: sammyunltd
Originally posted by: waggy
heh i think sammyunltd got pretty owned in this thread.
Not at all, man.
Seriously, looking at the USA's past three big wars, Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam, its power is widely overstated. Not only are the other countries (China and Russia and others) catching the US in terms of technology (see China's newest fighters and submarines) but they greatly outnumber the USA (provided Putin imposes conscription, and that may work over there...). Furthermore, Europe is pretty small whereas China and Russia are two of the biggest countries and so far, every power that has tried to take down Russia couldn't (France - Napoleon and Nazis - Hitler) manage it.
The USA proved to the world that their logistic is flawed, by the number of casualties, by their difficulty to crush the resistance in Iraq and Afghanistan, by their costly technology failing to "produce" (ie. many $2B B-2 crashing, etc.). Their soldiers are badly trained (widely known, they take any "volunteer" and not the best of the best) and the infantry is not well equipped (M16 sucks).
As for the Arab States, they might as well join Russia and kick out the "infidels" from their holy soil (i.e. USA's bases in Saudi Arabia). So, they can cut off the USA and Europe's supplies in oil (easy to do, stop sending cargos to their ports..., as easy as that). So, Russia can still have some and China as well.
Furthermore, China, to help Russia and also gain from a weakened West, will sell its US Gov't Bonds to crush the US currency for good. Oil shortages will cause its price to dramatically increase... and on and on.
It is possible..
What China submarine can even hold a candle to the Virginia or Seawolf class, let alone a modern 688? none.
What Chinese or Russian aircraft can hold a candle to an F-22 flight? none. Sure, they have pretty demonstrations in Russia, but no ability to actually afford to equip their military.
Casualties? We've had less than 2% casualties in Iraq. Big fucking deal. What was the number of casualties Russia sustained in Afghanistan? Urban warfare with a disaggregated army has never been easy, history has proven that.
Many B-2's crashing? One has crashed, where are the rest?
Poorly trained? we have the best trained military in the world. Only the best units from Israel, GB, or Germany, could match the upper level (not best) units in the US. Volunteer armies not being better?
What the fuck are you smoking? Professional volunteer armies have shown to be the best armies in the world throughout history. Conscript armies are nothing more than meatshield armies and have been proven as such. They depend on officers too much and give too little weight to the professional non-com structure. Sounds like you're an idiot reading websites with little appreciation for history.
The ME wouldn't dare kick us out. As far as selling the bonds. Great, sell them. We'll buy them back for pennies on the dollar and retire them. meanwhile, those foreign governments will lose trillions. It'll make our goods immensely cheap and unburden the US economy from interest payments. Oil may be a problem, but it's a smaller one than anything else, considering we can innovate around it pretty quickly.
Now you fail at economics.
It's funny that you think you know so much, but really, know so little.