The election is taking up lots of media time.

But lets not forget about North Korea and Chinese increasing tensions with Japan.

China - Hell March - the largest army in the world - FULL (Official) - YouTube

This is why I think we should never go to war with China. The American people have not the slightest grasp about what kind of war Japan is dragging us towards.

Right now and since WW2 we have fought nothing but piss ant army's really. I don't think the American public can absorb the number of causalities fighting a real army will cause.

__________________
1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

China ZTZ 99 MBT on City Road - YouTube

This is what cities who don't properly tote the party line get, and what we would be facing.

Not BS Republican Guard units. Highly trained and fanatical tank units with equipment on the level of any countries today. Ie they are going to pop Abrams like we pop theirs, no one sided battles.

__________________
1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

When the time is right...China will make it's move.




At that time the West will be nothing more than an Ant facing a Dragon.



Believe that.

__________________
CHILCUTT~
The secret to a long life. Is knowing when it is time to leave.

Hell, forget the public - the MILITARY couldn't absorb that type of casualties as it stands - an all volunteer force, people and equipment worn out by over ten years of fighting two attrition/guerilla wars?

Only one way you could muster the personnel necessary to fight that war - and if BO even whispered the word "draft", his approval ratings would end up making Congress look good by comparison. Canada would become a VERY popular tourist destination amongst the 18 - 35 age group once again.

I don't think the powers that be in both countries would allow it to come to the point of us getting into a war with China - in short, it'd be bad for business - fiscally and economically - not only would it tank our two economies, but probably drag the rest of the world down with us as well.

Besides, from what I can gather perusing some foreign news outlets, BO is a little preoccupied with Libya and Syria right now - as in we've been doing a little old-fashioned gun running via Libya thru Turkey into Syria - problem is, a goodly portion of the arms we're sending, including Stinger missles, is ending up in the hands of our old "friends" from Al-Queada - who seem to coincidentally make up a good portion of the "freedom fighters" in Syria - and that Turkey is basically giving them safe haven, allowing them to train and reequip at a base inside Turkey - and that the government forces had managed to capture some "advisors" from a certain outfit, that used to go by the name of Blackwater.

Ooops.

Perhaps that has something to do with the cryptic comment about the good general not testifying at the Benghazi hearings - why bother mentioning that, when he's ostensibly resigning because of an extramarital affair?

__________________
Just say "NO" to Ethanol - Drive Diesel

Mitchell Oates
Mooresville, NC
'87 300D 212K miles
'87 300D 151K miles - R.I.P. 12/08
'05 Jeep Liberty CRD 67K miles
Grumpy Old Diesel Owners Club

Hard to say. China is in an ongoing water crisis. It might ultimately motivate wars for territory but it will also serve as a governor on their strength. I read that the desert has reached within 30 miles of Beijing.

The desertification of China

OK, maybe 30 miles isn't accurate. But 70 km is about 42 miles.

__________________
1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

Never gonna happen.

We are their market, they will protect us unlike anything you've ever seen.

__________________
On some nights I still believe that a car with the fuel gauge on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. - HST

1983 300SD - 305000
1984 Toyota Landcruiser - 190000
1994 GMC Jimmy - 203000

https://media.giphy.com/media/X3nnss8PAj5aU/giphy.gif

You will make good slaves to you're new Masters.



Never say Never...

__________________
CHILCUTT~
The secret to a long life. Is knowing when it is time to leave.

They are working very closely with Singapore on De-salienation projects.
Also, with expanding their view 25-40 years out...at which-Singapore are masters at.

I am sure that some interest in building either canal's or pipelines have been discussed to tackle this issue.

__________________
CHILCUTT~
The secret to a long life. Is knowing when it is time to leave.

China is already buying land where ever they can.
Japan has little or no natural resources so its of little long term use. They will just slowly take over big biz & avoid bloodshed.

__________________
Grumpy Old Diesel Owners Club group

I no longer question authority, I annoy authority. More effect, less effort....

1967 230-6 auto parts car. rust bucket.
1980 300D now parts car 800k miles
1984 300D 500k miles
1987 250td 160k miles English import
2001 jeep turbo diesel 130k miles
1998 jeep tdi ~ followed me home. Needs a turbo.
1968 Ford F750 truck. 6-354 diesel conversion.
Other toys ~J.D.,Cat & GM ~ mainly earth moving

Desalination, it current technology, works for 10k's to 100k's population. Not 1,000k's to 10,000k's. Maybe the oil states will develop something mre efficient than reverse osmosis. But it isn't here, now.

China, without discussion with its neighbors, has dammed the Mekong and tributaries and other rivers that exit it's boundaries. This has resulted in throttling the river and lowering availability to Indochina. Those countries are terrified.

Also, Chinese claims on the offshore hydrocarbons hs put it in direct conflict with similar claims from Taiwan, Philippines, Vietnam, and Indonesia.

Some people claim China has no territorial ambitions. Poppycock, say the Tibetans.

If there is ever a war between the US and China. China will win it without ever firing a shot*. They know that to try and match us with wasteful military spending is a fool's errand. They might pretend to do so, but only to make us spend like crazy. They will beat us with trade. We won't be beaten so much as we just won't have the same level of prosperity or trade. The way they will do that is to copy our tech, use it to train a generation of engineers (done), and then begin improving upon it (next on the agenda). But even if your hypothesis (of a fearsome Chinese military) were true (maybe someday); I can not see our country shy-ing away from a fight due to cowardice, even in the case of overwhelming odds.

• China spends like 2% of it's GDP on military spending. We spend 4-5-ish (and our GDP is still bigger).
• China has only ever "invaded" Tibet, and Korea. Every other war has been defensive (or internal). I doubt they would have bothered with Korea if the rest of the world hadn't been acting a fool in WWII.
• China keeps the Norks fed now just to keep them all from bum-rushing the north eastern provinces. But they are as embarrassed by the Norks as you'd expect. The Norks are their crazy Appalachian cousins which they don't like to talk about or be compared to. That, and the CCP can't let a Communist country fail for PR issues.
• The Japanese, boy do they hate the Japanese. You can't imagine. Even so, what reason do they have for aggressive action against Japan? What would that win them, besides the enmity of the world? They would be shunned, even without considering the US/NATO response.
• Guns and bullets will not win any sustained conflict. To win a sustained conflict you need resources and manufacturing.

* IMO the Chinese have opted for the fast-growth parts of capitalism, while keeping as much of the central planning / socioeconomic planning stuff as they can. They may in fact want to challenge us militarily some day, but that day is long away (2050-ish). We could hasten the arrival of that day by sustaining our unproductive Reagan-era mindset of ridiculous spending on current and past-era military tech. But, no matter how badly some Chinese nationalists within the CCP may wish to challenge the west, they have to balance military growth against the desire of its people for improved quality of life.

__________________
Remember, Safety Third!
'99 E300 Turbodiesel, '82 300TD, 1996 12V Cummins Turbo, '94 Neoplan - Detroit 6V92TA

You need LFTR or some other disruptive energy tech with fantastically better efficiency before desalination with current desalinization tech becomes feasible.

Yeah, even though it sort of goes against my previous post, I'd agree that the smaller countries in southeast Asia (the ones nobody really cares about) have reason to worry. I still don't see military invasion happening though. I'd expect economic / resource deprivation as you've alluded to.

__________________
Remember, Safety Third!
'99 E300 Turbodiesel, '82 300TD, 1996 12V Cummins Turbo, '94 Neoplan - Detroit 6V92TA

Winning economic wars between larger adversaries seems to be the way it will be to me. At the current time the chinese are learning the game.

One should consider this as not that bad of a bloodless option.Still very serious at the same time. There are too many inherent variables with this approach but it seems workable in general to me overall.

Smaller wars will continue with countries that have little chance of participation in economic battles. Those to me are basically more political type or ideology based fights. Economically they are a disaster except for those manufacturing the weapons and amunition to enable them.

If you are economically powerful enough you can indirectly or otherwise at least buy control of an external entity. You do not have to annex it by force. This gets into the area of needing structural changes to pre empt economic shifts of a major type overall. In my opinion this is perhaps a major lacking in todays political management of north america.

There are too many uncertainties of where things are headed otherwise. Structural changes to prevent things of an undesired nature occuring over the long haul to me are not a bad ideal. At this time there is quite a bit of flak in Canada about the government not allowing chinese takeover of segments of the internal energy sector. The chinese are seeking control of them currently.

My first awareness of this is when I picked up that the chinese had pumped 10 billion initially into one element our energy sector. I think they are prepared to invest hundreds of billions into it at this time to own and control it. If it were acomplished it would be too late to stop. I have to wonder what their eventual designs are on the american marketplace. Politically if it makes jobs may tilt the balance to allow it..

I would suggest forget the ideal of physical wars between superpowers. What may be waged soon enough as an economic war wil present enough stress to go around for almost all. The constantly accumulating federal debt load should make it easier for them as well. I would also expect a major wave of immigration to run their various enterprises at some point. Certainly there would be some benifit to north america. Still fundementally the important aspects of control and profit will be more externally benificial in nature than internally. North america may have played this game for a long time. Others may be better at it now or their approach is different enough to prevail.

I doubt a full-scale war would ever happen given current circumstances. But that's what people always say because people don't envision circumstances taht could change things. Including me. We all tend to see the world as steady-state and predictable and we are usually right: Yesterday really is a good predictor of tomorrow.

OTOH, shyte happens.

Let's say we had a massive volcanic event in the vicinity of Krakatoa that resulted in vomiting a cloud of ash that encircles the globe for 2-3 years. This would shorted the growing season in temperate climates. This would result in worldwide food shortages. A country with a billion people to feed and little arable land would be under significant pressure to get food. They would seek food from places that have it.

Abrupt, short-term climate disasters have happened before: Year Without a Summer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It could happen again, tomorrow. In that circumstance our linear thinking would collapse, models would be useless and we would likely enter a decade of military conflict around the world.

Flak? Keeping the chingalingdingdongs from controlling strategic industries is one of the smartest things that the Canadian gov't is doing. If only the US could be as smart. Not having H-bombs to glassify their major cities, the Canadians need to resort to other, less-violent means of self-protection.