All I know is that China would most likely kick our asses in a major war, so we better get on their good side and quick...
U.S. is made up of Chinese, Russians, and the whole lot. We will always be the superpower. We are all people and you simply cannot beat that.
Uh, ya right. If we decided to try and invade China, it would be a war we could not win withiut using Nuclear weapons. And sice China has nukes as well, that is not an option. You really think we would be able to defeat a 200 million man army? CIA World Fact Book see it like this: Military branches: People's Liberation Army (PLA): comprises ground forces, Navy (including naval infantry and naval aviation), Air Force, and II Artillery Corps (strategic missile force), People's Armed Police Force (internal security troops, nominally a state security body but included by the Chinese as part of the "armed forces" and considered to be an adjunct to the PLA), militia Military manpower - availability: males age 15-49: 370,087,489 (2002 est.) Military manpower - fit for military service: males age 15-49: 203,003,036 (2002 est.) Military manpower - reaching military age annually: males: 10,089,458 (2002 est.) Military expenditures - dollar figure: $20.048 billion (2002); note - this is the officially announced figure, but actual defense spending more likely ranges from $45 billion to $65 billion for 2002
I am glad we are on top. However what goes up, comes down. I foroet who said it, but all small empires become large.
In fact the US defense budget is almost equal to the entire world's combine spending on defense. Nobody is even close to us.
Maybe so, but to imply that a country with a viable fighting force of over 200 million would not "have a prayer" is over stating it a bit.
I think we’re being a bit overconfident. Just because MiddleEasterners can’t fight a lick, doesn’t mean the Chinese can’t fight. Those Asians will fight till the end. WWII, Korea, Vietnam. We should stick to the MiddleEast. Those guys talk a good game, Jihad this and that, and doing terrorist things. But when it comes to fighting, they know better.
Define 'always', please. We have been a superpower for the blink of an eye, in historical terms...you think that we will go on like this for another 1000 years, and start to get into the Big Boys neighbourhood? Really?
well what type of war are we talking about against china. actually trying to invade and subdue a billion people? or just a "china and the u.s are pissed and want a war and the loser is whoever gives up first (i.e. no invasion/occupation necessary)?" yeah we couldn't actually invade and control china. but if we were strictly fighting to see who is better, how would we not win based on everything i've heard and read about our respective capabilities. our navy severely outclasses there's. our air force would win. if armies were brought in, our technology advantage would be enough that they probably wouldn't wanna keep messing with us. and don't we have a huge nuke advantage? not that either side would really just wanna nuke away and have nothing left. so how long do you give us? as for entering the "big boy neighbourhood" (apparently it's a british neighborhood), aren't we pretty much in it already. sure we haven't lasted as long as some of the greats, but our relative power is unmatched in history. even the biggest empires only seemed to control that which they could conquer militarily, and that only compromised at most asia plus part of europe (mongols, who always get credited with the biggest land empire ever). everywhere else in the world no one cared. but us. we permeate everything. our language is dominant, our culture is dominant, our economy is dominant, our military is dominant. no one has ever had the power we've had, no matter how short a time we've had it. and change was much slower back in the day it seems. reigning for a 1000 years now would be unfreakinbelievably hard.
The US could never invade China and win, but I wonder if we could keep them out of Taiwan if they decided to take the island back with force. It seems if they put together a large invasion force there wouldn't really be anyway to keep them out.
Through out the history of "super powers", It has always moved west ward around the globe. Egyptians, Rome, England, USA, ....Japan?
There's this fiction book with a couple of interesting scenarios on this, in one, the Chinese start taking out GPS satellites which cripples many of our high tech weapons and equalizes them with US non-nuclear forces in a way ( supposedly we don't have a lot of backup systems and it would take a really long time to replace them versus the time to shoot them down).
China is already winning the real war that is being waged - the economic one. US jobs leave for China by the thousands every passing week. Price deflation persists around the world as China is able to consistently produce for less. Our national deficit balloons and our consumers accumulate more mountains of debt. Rome died from excess spending, too. Meanwhile, China's government encourages its citizens to stockpile gold.
India's beating us in part of that war, too, unfortunately. This whole free trade thing doesn't make sense to me, eventually the only products we'll make in America are foreign born college graduates, celebrities and weapons, we can't compete in anything else.
The next superpower will likely be led by primates. Seriously, I think that the US will be the last "superpower" ever.
