THEWULFMAN wrote:*sighs*
We couldn't handle the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan? Really? How so? We took a few casualties as the years mounted. We didn't lose, the American public's standard of "victory" has just gotten so low that they complained over a handful of casualties. And yes, compared to WW2 what happened in Iraq and Afghanistan was a "handful" of casualties.
We're still going to maintain the largest and most powerful navy for years to come, partially just because no other allied power is rising to replace us. Don't come and tell me that China's navy is going to be anywhere close as good for decades to come. They're building carriers now? Good luck with that. Trying to start a naval air power is not as easy as building the ships.
Yes, our Air Force is going through some rough times. Once they get their heads out of their asses, stop pouring resources into stealth superiority, we'll be back to normal. The Navy is starting to go back to the F/A-18. Thank god, really. The F-35 project is such a waste of money, especially considering it's going to need to be redesigned or it can't fly off of standard carriers. It's restricted to FTOL right now, damn idiots put the arresting hook in the wrong place. The Air Force however does need to get its act together, and I have faith in it. Once they go back to standard aircraft, lose the obsession with stealth, we'll be on the right track.
Our army and marines are still the most effective fighting force on the ground proportion to its scale in the world. We haven't needed to build a new tank in 3 decades because no nation has built one to surpass it, except maybe the Germans.
At the end of it, I don't see China being the threat that everyone makes them out to be. I'm still keeping tabs on everyone's military to see what the future might bring, and I'm not concerned. I am not some patriotic fool who will defend his nation's pride even if he is wrong. I do my best to only speak in facts and my honest objective opinions.
It's not just about the casualties, it's about public morale. If you think the tears are bad now, imagine going to war with an actually comparable nation where the US would more than likely lose 15-25% of its fighting strength.
And China most definitely has the capability to build a world class navy seeing as their dockyards are now the largest in the world. But like I said it won't be for some decades that they would be able to power project beyond their territorial waters. You seem to think that any war with a major power would be effectively be over in weeks like the Iraq campaign. More than likely it would drag on for quite some time especially seeing as our western allies are comparatively (almost) completely demobilized. China has not been on a war economy in the information age, and it would be interesting to see what ridiculous amount of industry they could pump out when fully mobilized. America could barely contain China at the height of American power during the Korean War, to the point where they were considering using atomic weapons to try and contain them. And that was on a very, very short front where the Chinese weren't capable of encircling entire field armies sheerly through advantage of their numbers.
The US Military today in terms of equipment is much like the German army compared to its contemporaries during world war 2. Very high emphasis on quality but production time is absolutely terrible. For example, the T99/96 costs roughly 2 million to produce compared to the Abrams 6-9 million. They are both third generation MBTs that have never met in combat. The only "test of fire" the Abrams had was against a [poo] Iraqi tank corps equipped with T72s from the [m'kay] 70s. Plus the military-industrial system in the US has sort of [m'kay] itself in the case of an actual full scale war that would be drawn out. Seeing as they have spread out production to several facilities to ensure their political survival. Which obviously drives up cost and production time.
Now I'm not saying the US still won't be the premier military power in most of the world, but the days where the US could look at any country and decide they wanted to take it over are gone. The biggest problem with America's fighting strength is the nearly complete lack of faith in its government. In comparison the Chinese Communist Party is honestly pretty fascist in nature in that when they want something done, it gets done. There are still problems with corruption but in general seems to be improving.
In a war with China the Chinese would more than likely over run South Korea and depending on the location of (I think it's) the US 7th Fleet when they attempted an invasion of Taiwan they could very well reclaim that. Japan would remain pretty safe and snug with possible PRC missile strikes, but I have a lot of faith in the US anti-missile capabilities. But any invasion of China would be very short lived strategically because it's simply like a Russia on steroids.
At the end of the day it's nearly impossible to truly over take a nation as large as China when their available military man power is greater than the entire population of your own country.
er and cannot see all this. Obama has no credibility or influence with any country, especially Russia and China, outside of imports/exports. You can bet Putin strong armed Obama to conceded ridding us of more Nukes in order to open some sort of bogus dialogue on the Syria issue, in order to strengthen Russia's Nuke stance while weakening ours.
)
