carolinafan wrote:Oh, no tantrum my dear boy...I really DO want to see you bleed slowly to death......
BTW, the Germans were one of the biggest military powers in the world in the 30s yet had an incredible recession/deficit going on....their power was due to fear and propaganda not their economy. Hitler was a mastermind of brainwashing the lower middle classes into believing he could save them. So, your theory about China getting stronger due to increased profits from their plastic wal mart toys is refuted. Just look at our reaction to 9/11 (in which I was at the epicenter and thankfully survived). We were royally pissed off and built our military to unprecedented numbers as a reaction to advisory and not because we had a few billion extra dollars in our coffers.
Umm...wha?
Let's see if I can coherently summarize your argument here. Economic superiority does not lead to military superiority. Okay. Did they teach you that at your Ivy?
Hitler directed the full resources of the German state toward building its military. This would have led to economic catastrophe in the absence of...acquisition. Which was fine with Hitler, because he was nothing if not acquisitive. Problem was, as Japan also learned, that strategy can only carry you so far when facing an opposition with a secure, well-developed economic infrastructure and manufacturing base. The U.S. was able to ramp up from a tiny military into an unstoppable military juggernaut very quickly on the back of its economic capabilities. What's more, the U.S. was able to sustain a high military investment throughout the cold war years, eventually bankrupting the Soviet Union, which bled its inferior economic system dry in an effort to keep up. And we did it on a very small percentage of our overall GDP. That's what a strong economy gives you...the ability for sustained investment in equipment, training and technology over an indefinite period of time. Any tinpot can bankrupt his country building up its military. But can he sustain that investment, especially in the face of concerted opposition? China will be in a position to do so.
For your edification, the post 9/11 military build-up didn't even come close to "unprecedented numbers." What it did was simply remedy the gutting of the military and intelligence apparatus that took place under Clinton. This wasn't "in reaction to advisory" (whatever the hell that means), but was rather a rational response to the practical and obvious reality that we no longer had either the military or intelligence gathering capability to combat our enemies. It's one of the few things that Bush got right.
And why drag me behind a car? Much more tidy--not to mention carbon efficient--to force my children to suffocate me with a plastic bag, like your commie bedfellows did to millions of dissenters in Cambodia after we pulled out of Vietnam. Yes, that's the tried and true liberal way. If they don't agree with you, hate them...and then kill them.
Feel free to try.
