America!!!

[Go_India]

Well guys, dont u think America is slowly losing its grip on being the most powerful nation in the world??? Looking at their current state they havent even got enough money in support for the disaster in katrina, spending (maybe unexpected) amount of money in Iraq and afghanistan, maybe this has led to alot of financial loss and now developing countries like bangladesh are giving them money for rebuilding. I seriously cant think of them being as wealthy as i thought, what do u think?

[Pothas]

Well they are still clearly the most powerfull nation in the world to suggest otherwise would be obsurd, Bushes tax cuts have meant less income for the federal governement it is still an obsurdly wealthy country. China are catching up especialy in economic terms but America are still the only super power but i dont know for how much longer

[Jono]

Well they're still clearly the most powerful nation, and they will be for a few more decades to come. However how powerful China get, and how large their economy grows is still fairly unknown. It really depends on how much they will continue to open up. With continous talk of bilateral FTAs (not that the potential Australian one will help them THAT much) and an increasingly productive and educated workforce... who knows?

[Go_India]

Yeah well u guys are right in saying they are the most powerful nation and will remain for some time, but the amount they are spending in Iraq and Afghanistan is enormous, and everyone knows it will take along time since those coutries are stabilized, they might have all the weapons in the world but my feeling is they havent got as much money as people think.

[Jono]

Well everyone knew they were spending plenty with the recent wars, however now that this excessive spending has consequentially resulted in flagrant harm to the American people, this has occurred.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=4311

The number of people who think the country is on the wrong track grew from 59 per cent last month to 65 per cent this month. Tumbling consumer confidence after Hurricane Katrina may be contributing to that sense of pessimism.

Petrol prices too seem to have irritated many people.

Edit: Seems the link is now a different story, centralised more to Bush's reaction than the criticisms. However its still there at the bottom of the article.

[PY]

Petrol prices too seem to have irritated many people.

Well they can cry me a river to be honest.

They pay the same for a gallon of 'gasoline' as we do for a litre here.

IMO, it was bound to happen at some point and maybe a few cents added to tax would encourage people to look elsewhere.

[age_master]

China will be in 20 years or so just cause they have so many people, the US will still however no doubt have enough Neuclear weapons to blow up the world 4 times over or something stupid like that.

[C_C]

China will be in 20 years or so just cause they have so many people, the US will still however no doubt have enough Neuclear weapons to blow up the world 4 times over or something stupid like that.

Well so does Russia, UK, France, Israel, India, Pakistan, China and possibly North Korea/Iran...........
Nuke is a great leveller - it doesnt matter what size yer nation is or what strength the conventional armed forces are, if you got nukes and ICBM technology/exit and re-entry rocket technology, you are not gonna be bothered by any big shot military when you sabre-rattle your nuclear capabilities.

[Shounak]

Well so does Russia, UK, France, Israel, India, Pakistan, China and possibly North Korea/Iran...........
Nuke is a great leveller - it doesnt matter what size yer nation is or what strength the conventional armed forces are, if you got nukes and ICBM technology/exit and re-entry rocket technology, you are not gonna be bothered by any big shot military when you sabre-rattle your nuclear capabilities.

You will if the country's dirt poor. If North Korea's technology were a little more advanced, they would still be bothered by the USA. IIRC, the DPRK have the capability to launch a nuke (if they had a proper one) into Japan.

They know if they do anything like that, any assurances from China would go out the window at it would be a free-for-all. The world vs. DPRK..

Plus the leader's a bloody nutjob. Doesn't giving a flying f*ck about the people. The DPRK's been trying to sabre rattle its nuclear programs. I doubt the situation would change very much if they actually made a proper nuke.

[C_C]

You will if the country's dirt poor. If North Korea's technology were a little more advanced, they would still be bothered by the USA. IIRC, the DPRK have the capability to launch a nuke (if they had a proper one) into Japan.

They know if they do anything like that, any assurances from China would go out the window at it would be a free-for-all. The world vs. DPRK..

Plus the leader's a bloody nutjob. Doesn't giving a flying f*ck about the people. The DPRK's been trying to sabre rattle its nuclear programs. I doubt the situation would change very much if they actually made a proper nuke.

I am talking from a military perspective, not economic. If a country like Luxembourg has nukes plus ICBM technology and is willing to use them, America can do f*ck all against Luxembourg despite its overwhelming superiority in conventional forces- unless ofcourse, America deciedes that it can bear the cost of a few American cities being nuked.

And yes, DPRK cannot touch mainland US-yet. Nor do they need to. A few nukes towards Japan and Soul and you'll see the Dow Jones launching a southward exodus of such magnitude that 9-11induced economic slump would look like a blip on the index.

Ofcourse, using nukes first will lead to the certain annihilation of DPRK, which is why i dont think it is gonna use it at all - it is sabre rattling and warning America that it will use it IF attacked.
And unless little Kim bolloxes up absolutely, you can count on China being in North Korea's corner in case of any confrontation. And despite its overall military superiority, US will be wise not to engage china-even if its only a garanteed conventional war- its attack forces will almost certainly get annihilated by the Chinese military.

[Shounak]

Ofcourse, using nukes first will lead to the certain annihilation of DPRK, which is why i dont think it is gonna use it at all - it is sabre rattling and warning America that it will use it IF attacked.
And unless little Kim bolloxes up absolutely, you can count on China being in North Korea's corner in case of any confrontation. And despite its overall military superiority, US will be wise not to engage china-even if its only a garanteed conventional war- its attack forces will almost certainly get annihilated by the Chinese military.

China are only there to prevent a war from breaking out. They say they guarantee DPRK, but do they really? It is not in China's best interests for anything to happen to the DPRK. Should anything happen to the DPRK, everyone would go running straight into China. China would lose heaps of resouces as a result

The only reason China are guaranteeing the DPRK is to stop the USA from taking any action.

The flip side is if the DPRK disarm. Then the tens of thousands of US troops settled in ROK would naturally settle into the DPRK. What does this mean for China?

US troops on their doorstep.

China will fight as hard as they can to maintain the status quo. But if it comes down to supporting either DPRK or the US, they would support the US. Unconditionally I think. The only way China will engage the US in combat is if the US invade the DPRK of their own accord..

[andyc]

The only way China will engage the US in combat is if the US invade the DPRK of their own accord..

True, but Taiwan could conceivably start them fighting.

[Shounak]

True, but Taiwan could conceivably start them fighting.

Nahh. The USA say they support democracy. But if it came down to it, they wouldn't launch into a full scale war with China over Taiwan.

All each party does is station aircraft carriers around Taiwan to scare the other party. Taiwan's too inconsequential for anything major to break out over it.

China's not going to invade Taiwan anyway. It would be political stupidity to the max..

[C_C]

But if it comes down to supporting either DPRK or the US, they would support the US. Unconditionally I think. The only way China will engage the US in combat is if the US invade the DPRK of their own accord..

I dont think the Chinese would support the US unconditionally at all and extremely unlikely to pick the US over North Korea, due to strategic power issues. Eveyrone would go running into China ? for what ? to die ? look at Iraq - America is struggling to control Iraq and forget America and its sidekick Britain/OZ, even a 100 nation coalition wont successfully occupy China. And as Andy said, i think they would come to blows over Taiwan first, which i fully expect to be incorporated into China in the next 20 years.
I dont see how the US can successfully defend Taiwan without resorting to a full-scale nuclear war (which would be stupid, really) - China has massive advantage strategically in a battle over taiwan, it has the manpower to occupy taiwan and repulse the superior trained US marines/ground troops by their sheer numerical superiority and the much vaunted US aircraft carrier groups (Nimitz class- which is the central nexus for US attacking any overseas nation over the past 20 years or so) would most likely be absolutely catastrophic for the US - China has access to Russian built Onyx and SSN-22 Sunburn anti-ship missiles and the US have no counter to it ( the much vaunted AEGIS radar system and RAM missiles are utterly useless against Onyx and Sunburn), which in essence makes them just floating targets.

[C_C]

China's not going to invade Taiwan anyway. It would be political stupidity to the max..

If China wants Taiwan badly enough, it will (unfortunately) take it.