El Blanco
Jul 19th, 2007, 02:17 PM
In another thread, Max suggested that the US will soon no longer be a superpower and could be replaced by Russia, China, or India. Now, in his old age, I think Max has become somewhat pessimistic. I think that it is entirely possible that the US soon won't be the sole superpower, but our run as leader in the West is far from over. It will end someday, just not soon.
China has no navy. They have a few fishing boats with guns, but they do not have the ability to move their forces and project power. India is pretty much the same. Actually, India's navy is a little better, but it is still centered around a few diesel fueled aircraft carriers.
One of the main reasons the US has been such a dominate world power is because we can have boots on the ground in any corner of the globe in around 8 hours. If you want economic and political power, you have to project military power.
China has the world's largest air force by far (even if it more quantity than quality) and they have all those ICBMs. However, those are purely for destruction. You can't occupy territory or hold a position with aircraft and missiles. And an ICBM is really hard to reposition.
Another things is that the countries we border are our biggest trading partners and don't have grudges with us that go back millennia. China, India and Russia have that problem.
I'm not saying that China and India can't be superpowers, I'm saying they are going to do it by playing ball with us.
Russia, that is just a whole other train wreck. They have the material resources to be far more powerful than the old USSR, but they have never gotten their act together. They never went through the processes and growing pains that other countries went through on their way to being superpowers and it killed them.
They never had their version of the ages of Exploration, Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution. They went from feudalism to a fully mechanized society almost overnight. They saw all the cool stuff other places had and got them. They just forgot to get rid of the dictators and such. China kind of did the same thing but it wasn't as dramatic and sudden as the Russians. Also, China actually had their act together and experience as a superpower prior to the 20th Century.
Also, I think a lot of the political strife we are currently facing in this country is being over exaggerated in the face of some of the other things we've faced in our short history. We are as free a society as we've ever been, we are still very strong economically, our military is actually still the best in the world (despite the perception some have of us losing in Iraq), and the quality of life here is damn good. We are far short of perfect and can improve on a lot of things, but its not really that bleak here.
China has no navy. They have a few fishing boats with guns, but they do not have the ability to move their forces and project power. India is pretty much the same. Actually, India's navy is a little better, but it is still centered around a few diesel fueled aircraft carriers.
One of the main reasons the US has been such a dominate world power is because we can have boots on the ground in any corner of the globe in around 8 hours. If you want economic and political power, you have to project military power.
China has the world's largest air force by far (even if it more quantity than quality) and they have all those ICBMs. However, those are purely for destruction. You can't occupy territory or hold a position with aircraft and missiles. And an ICBM is really hard to reposition.
Another things is that the countries we border are our biggest trading partners and don't have grudges with us that go back millennia. China, India and Russia have that problem.
I'm not saying that China and India can't be superpowers, I'm saying they are going to do it by playing ball with us.
Russia, that is just a whole other train wreck. They have the material resources to be far more powerful than the old USSR, but they have never gotten their act together. They never went through the processes and growing pains that other countries went through on their way to being superpowers and it killed them.
They never had their version of the ages of Exploration, Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution. They went from feudalism to a fully mechanized society almost overnight. They saw all the cool stuff other places had and got them. They just forgot to get rid of the dictators and such. China kind of did the same thing but it wasn't as dramatic and sudden as the Russians. Also, China actually had their act together and experience as a superpower prior to the 20th Century.
Also, I think a lot of the political strife we are currently facing in this country is being over exaggerated in the face of some of the other things we've faced in our short history. We are as free a society as we've ever been, we are still very strong economically, our military is actually still the best in the world (despite the perception some have of us losing in Iraq), and the quality of life here is damn good. We are far short of perfect and can improve on a lot of things, but its not really that bleak here.