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Are adjectives good to eat?

The question that nobody has raised is: Why would we be fighting China?
Answering that question tells you what kind of war it would be and what victory would look like.

Tallgeese wrote:

The question that nobody has raised is: Why would we be fighting China?
Answering that question tells you what kind of war it would be and what victory would look like.

This is why I say that it can't compare to Iraq.  At this point the US is "nation building" in Iraq, fighting a small (in per capita terms) insurgency. 

I'm assuming a conflict with China would be focused on the US trying to keep China from expanding from their current location;  be it via a large conventional force to combat with conventional means (WWII-style), or their conventional force vs guerrillas we arm (Soviets in Afghanistan-style).

Tallgeese wrote:

The question that nobody has raised is: Why would we be fighting China?
Answering that question tells you what kind of war it would be and what victory would look like.

True, but this whole talk is extremely hypothetical. Considering how inter-dependant the Chinese and US economies are, any open hostilities would be very bad for both countries right now. And anything large scale would quickly escalate to a level where nuclear weapons would be used as a threat. Really guys, this is a WW3 situation we're talking about, and its pretty likely there would be numerous other countries involved in such a conflict as well.

I was mostly arguing from an "on paper" point of view, since any sort of war between these two countries would mean the world is seriously smurfed, and just about anything could happen.

[Tycho?] wrote:

Yeah. I still personally think the US would have a very hard time, but looking at this question on a timeline is perhaps more useful. 10 years ago I certainly wouldn't be making this argument. But China has come a long way in those 10 years, and the US has only seen problems. And thinking 10 years into the future, I can't help but think that China is rapidly gaining, and that this is not going to slow down any time soon.

Well, another thing to think about is whether the government would slow funding military research and development despite hardships experienced by the population. Theres already plenty of problems they could spend the military budget on, why would they suddenly switch gears now? Even historically, didnt funding the military and creating new research and manufacturing for the DOD help bring the US out of the Great Depression, creating new jobs etc? I mean, this is all hypothetical, and its quite possible that instead of creating a wider gap, it could forge a sort of nationalistic solidarity instead.

sturner wrote:

Are adjectives good to eat?

When properly candied.

StaticAge wrote:

[Tycho?] wrote:

Yeah. I still personally think the US would have a very hard time, but looking at this question on a timeline is perhaps more useful. 10 years ago I certainly wouldn't be making this argument. But China has come a long way in those 10 years, and the US has only seen problems. And thinking 10 years into the future, I can't help but think that China is rapidly gaining, and that this is not going to slow down any time soon.

Well, another thing to think about is whether the government would slow funding military research and development despite hardships experienced by the population. Theres already plenty of problems they could spend the military budget on, why would they suddenly switch gears now? Even historically, didnt funding the military and creating new research and manufacturing for the DOD help bring the US out of the Great Depression, creating new jobs etc? I mean, this is all hypothetical, and its quite possible that instead of creating a wider gap, it could forge a sort of nationalistic solidarity instead.

Sure its possible, although I dont see it. If military funding was a magic bullet to create jobs and help the economy, the US wouldn't be facing economic problems right now. The US is already vastly overspending on military stuff, with no end in sight. The Soviets bankrupted themselves trying to keep a technological and military edge on the US. The same thing could happen to the US given a few more decades.

Time will tell though. But I sure wont be making any long term bets against China, thats for sure.

When our kids are no longer getting fat - that means restaurants have become too expensive for major meal replacement, and we are in financial hardship.

I look around - and I still see fat kids, and I still see lines and lines of cars at the fast food places.

Last edited by resedit (2008-05-31 3:41 am)

resedit wrote:

When our kids are no longer getting fat - that means restaurants have become too expensive for major meal replacement, and we are in financial hardship.

I think you have too much faith in America's home-cooking skills.