I agree..
America's economy is crushed, and they will soon not be able to afford their $600 billion per year military budget.
can you imagine what would happen to america's gears of war if that 600 billion were no longer available? None of their machinary would be able to be fixed or serviced. The whole system would come to a screeching halt. And if America can't handle some unruly taliban and iraqi's, wth can they do against the well greased Communist Chinese machines that have a billion "semi" slaves that will do what they are commanded.
Where do you think all that ordnance is manufactured? Those Hum-vees, those F16's, those M1A tanks, those assault rifles, those Pershing nuclear BM's? They are made in the US of A. There is no way in heck what you describe can happen.
The US could devalue it's own currency and make a NEW DOLLAR. Call it the NEW DOLLAR. Set the exchange rate at 1000 OLD DOLLARS = 1 NEW DOLLAR and the FED prints that. What do you think the world will do then?
Start a war against America?
Riiiiight.
Nothing. They'd protest and China would be screwed - US businesses would pull out of China, US consumers would stop buying Chinese goods. US would tell Europe and Japan to do the same. They'd follow. What do you think would happen then?
Well the price of iPods and TVs would go up. They wouldn't be made in China anymore. They'd be made in Japan, Germany, Korea, South America, Eastern Europe etc. They'd be a bit more expensive but - so what.
And Russia and china have close technology sharing deals. And America has got herself an awesome Ally in the form of Israel who sells American Military Technology to China who then go and reverse engineer this technology and reproduce it under a Chinese name.
You are quite arrogant in thinking Russia and CHina need to buy tech from Israel. Of course they have fairly decent tech of their own. But not as much, and not as good overall and the only military right now which knows how to fight a war is the US military.
I don't think all of the War Movies that Hollywood have brought out over the years will accurately portray what will happen if the situation would arise.
Don't look at Hollywood - look at Afghanistan, Korea, Vietnam and Iraq.
Afghanistan - some CIA dollars and stingers destroyed a super power.
Korea - the West stopped Russia, China and NK dead in their tracks.
Vietnam - The US had air superiority over the entire theatre of war, they only lost because the body count was too high and they were fighting the wrong type of war. They stopped this type of warfare in future conflicts.
Afghanistan II - Taliban - remember how people said that the US would be decimated because the Afganis would use dogs and children with bombs strapped to them who'd run under tanks and blow them up? Well the US got the Northern Alliance to win that war for them. Now they're fighting a guerilla war - but that's not the type of war they'd fight against China. They wouldn't even occupy China. That warfare type is over.
Iraq - two wars - they had air superiority on the first night.
And don't think that this sort of situation would not arise! We just have to look back at the last great depression of the 20's and what arose from that situation was WW2. Each time in the last century there was a economic downturn a huge war resulted.
Right so who would attack who? China could take on Russia. Russia could attack Europe. RUssia could break up further.
War's are a means to end an economic depression.
War's an end to obtaining territory, people and resources. China could get Russian territory this way.
China has a far more important card up it's sleave with which it can manipulate the US. The fact that it holds 2 trillion dollars. If China had to dump it's dollars and dollar demoninated assets, the US system would collapse. And China has just made another huge step which in no way is good for he US. look for "Beijing Put" and you will see that China is buying gold and which is a large deal the result of the recent rise of Gold to over $1000. The Central Bankers of the world and especially the US dollar are deeply upset by this action because it shows the Chinese are divesting out of the dollar into gold.
If China dumped those Dollars - China would collapse. China would be overthrown either from within (members of its Politburo) or a popular uprising would follow. What would happen to the US?
Well US would rally its allies - it would rally Europe, Canada, Japan, S Korea, Taiwan, Australia - those are allies which would not really back away from the US - Germany may BS a bit, and France would moan but they'd stay with the US - then they'd recall all their production from China. Who do you think China would build for?
the US and Rome are looking remarkably similar in their collapse.
How?
Rome was a land based empire which had to maintain a huge army to constantly defend itself from marauding Vandals, Barbarians, Ostrogoths etc.
Rome relied on imports of grain and produce to support its population and keep stability.
The US is a self contained country with no known natural enemies which can touch it. They're like an elephant. They have an ally (ethnically and culturally) called Canada on top and they have Mexico which emulates the US and receives lots of aid from them - in the south.
The US has no enemies - will the Chinese launch a D-Day landing in California? Drill a tunnel? Fly via the North Pole? Invade from Mexico?
The US is also economically and agriculturally self sufficient. After WW1 the US pulled out of world affairs - hence we had the rise of Adolf Hitler. The US can grow enough crops to feed its population, its population is sufficiently united not to rebel and break up and finally they have enough reserves to build anything they want - houses, cars, electronics, medicines, etc. They don't actually need anybody. It's more the rest of the world needs the US than the other way around.
Rome and USA are in no way similar.
