First of all Ganshauk I didn't say this is inevitable or that Russia wants this; I said it is the result of the policies of this administration and it is going to be with Russia as well as China as this administration forces the Russians back into bed with the Chinese. This BTW is what is happening.
I dont think anyone wants this. I was a die-hard Bush fan but after the beginning of his second term he started slipping. Bush is no Reagan. His cajones aren't even in the same league.
Despite that, I dont see it. I see the Chinese coming closer to our line while the Russians, unable to step off the line, are turning in order to "save face" and bolster national identity.
Let them.
We have already sown the seeds. Both economies are now so totally dependant on ours that any flunctuation felt here becomes a massive shockwave to them. If the US falls, they will be at the bottom already, ready to greet us in our misery. They both know this. The actual war being waged is them attempting to remove themselves from the US economic hegemony. At this time, it is not possible. Only China has the means to do so...in about a decade...maybe.
I have clearly understood the shift and argued that the right wing has not. They have done virtually everything possible to snatch defeat from victory and we are only in th beginning of the debacle of their creation. I do however think incompetence is less the reason than venality.
I call BS again. Bush is weak and he let those clowns in congress run around like unsupervised children but hey, it's just congress. His basic economic policies were sound and remain strong. Dont let the bullshit in the media get to you. Things may not be perfect but then again, would you want them to be? You have not mentioned Iraq yet but I get the feeling that it is the crux of your argument. Dont you see what we are doing there? Its sublime strategy.
Before then, economies were considered internal to the national organism. The outward projection of power was military. We have more bombs, more bombers, more missiles, ect...
This broke the USSR. It also ushered in the new age of warfare - economy.
This is a valid observation of then but not so much now. It is also impossible to maintain the present global market economy without the regional cooperation of government. It is not relevant however to the points I made or the fact that we have been assuming policies involving aggressive yet unnecessary tactics that ignore the consequences to others and what their probable reactions will be.
That was my whole point. Cold war as you know it no longer exists(the young people playing my game dont even know what the hell Cold War is!!). No one can touch us now. Not realistically. Terrorism has been waylaid as long as Iraq is a warzone. The cold war has become a war of global economies.
This is bull. The manufacturing has already left the US. Most of the products you describe or their subcomponents are coming from the protagonists you claim will be the opposition, in what you already accept as the conclusion, that we are entering a new cold war period.
Exactly. The products come from abroad. We buy them. China makes them. 70% of everything China makes is sold in the US.
What happens to China if we stop buying them? What happens if we default on thier loans. The USSR? Japan? India? Australia? Chile? Argentina? Venezuela? We, sir, are the market. Without the US economy, most of the rest of the world ceases to exist as surely as if we nuked them into oblivion.
And the simple fact is, we dont really need thier imports. We COULD do it on our own if we had to.
That, my friend, is economic hegemony.
The new "cold war" is ensuring that we retain this hegemony.
It is too late if this is true as we are already a debtor nation to them, in part thanks to the Iraq war again. The Chinese have been buying the debt generated by our deficit spending for that occupation and can now fight back economically in more ways than one. You are correct IMO to see a shifting theater of operation but that is not the issue, again you have fallen into the trap of seeing us entering a cold war, just not with Russia.
See above. We WANT China to own our debts. They are our biggest threat. If some guy owes you fifteen trillion dollars, are you going to kill him before you collect? Or are you going to insure that he is safe and sound while he pays the money back?
The theater HAS shifted, so has the nature of war. So, too, the balance of power. Basically, in the past decade, everything that can shift has. I feel like Schroedinger's cat and someone opened the damn box.
I think this is bull. We not only should not be seeing the world in this manner, the very act of doing so justifies the world seeing us in Orwellian fashion as the great threat to peace. Your assumptions of our military ability are hubris and a part of the Cheney/Bush mindset that is provoking our doom. We are not just picking fights with those we want to confront but those we do not want to confront and even with our allies. The point is that it is the US that is picking the fight, perhaps because we are too insecure to continue to compete economically and want to rely on military might instead.
Economically we could also be seen to be on the verge of a Golden Age but what is certain is that we are not going to be the same nation we are now in 30 years.
Interesting.
I agree. Saying we could mow the world in two weeks sounds like hubris. It is detrimental to our cause and totally outside the pale of rational human thought.
Unfortunately, it is also a fact. Actually, it would take about 45 minutes to an hour. We are the only nation on the planet that is still capable of destroying it.
It would be stupid to do so, however. Such barbarism is no longer needed.
Alternatively, one single well placed intervention in the NYSE would bring down anyone we wished within 48 hours.
In conclusion, all I can offer is this : Despite the government, the US has and always will strive for the best good of all other nations. Administrations come and go. Bush will be gone soon enough. Already the conservative base is mustering to put an end to his foibles , correct the wrongs, and prevent the Dems from mucking things up worse as is thier way.
You should be glad when I speak of the new war. As long as we can sustain war as an economic struggle, few people will have to die. For that, Im willing that my country can play the cowboy diplomat. I dont think Bush has done as bad as the press would like. He just isn't as good as other presidents at fighting off the wolves in the press. The trick is to look at the facts, not the fiction that comes off the AP wire.