Will we pass the baton to China?

[JailBush]

When predicting where the neocons will take us, one is forced to consider two very frightening possibilities:

1. They'll inspire a global backlash that will ruin, and possibly destroy, the United States.

2. They'll succeed in controlling outer space and effectively conquering the world, ushering in a millennium of suffering to rival the Dark Ages.

But there's another possibility. Suppose Iraq is an omen of what lies ahead - America faltering because the neocons bit off more than they could chew and enraging the global community.

Even if Democrats took back the White House, then began to clean up their own party, we can't just snap our fingers and stop what Bush started. A new global arms race is under way, and China is clearly bent on establishing a presence in space.

Suppose China achieved superpower status even as the United States continued to degenerate into a big joke. Suppose China's government adopts the Repuglicans' mean-spirited ways - and military technology. We're teaching them how to tyrannize the planet and creating new weapons that they can either steal or duplicate. They're also learning from our mistakes. We waste billions of dollars on costly mistakes, and they just take pictures and write notes.

Then again, the U.S. and China could both be brought to bay by terrorist armed with biochemical weapons - another field in which the U.S. is a pioneer. Thus, we should cringe every time we read about U.S. scientists creating viruses or developing tactica nukes. Who will they ultimately be used against?

[La_Serpiente]

1. I really think

that China is really different from the US. If anything, China is closer to the EU than to the US. I am not afraid of China. In my opinion, they have no interest into taking over the Western part of the United States or Pacific islands. They are only interested in Taiwan really.

Why should the US be the only country to take over space? China has to be there to check the power of the US. I am very afraid of the direction this country is going and if the US continues at this pace, we will have space dominance, military dominance, technological dominance, and a dominance unrivaled by any other. The only country that can really take down America is China and/or India since their populations equal 2 billion people. They have enough resources to go up against this country.

Now, I am not openly advocating that China become the next Imperial power or attack America. There just needs to be another country that will not be as hostile as the USSR was.

Do I believe that we should be making new biological weapons? No. We have enough Nuclear bombs to blow up the Earth.

In my ideal world, no one would have Nuclear weapons. However, I doubt that would ever happen now that Bush has open the floodgates.

Do I think America will succumb to another developing nation? It is possible. If we continue to not reinvest in our infrastructure and not reduce the debt, then we will be in big trouble. That is why it is imperative that Bush goes.

You are right when you say that we cannot just snap our fingers and the world will be all "goody-good" with us. Bush is only half the battle. The international framework has been severly damagaed by Bush and I am very concerned by the lack of discourse. That is why Hillary Clinton and other Democratic members of the Senate are meeting with people like Mr. Cook, ex-foreign minister of Britain, and with the foreign ministers of Europe. They are trying to restore the international framework as it was during Clinton.

Fighting the war on Terrorism requires broad-based networks that can shut down terrorist networks. Why? It takes a network to take down another network.

[sweetheart]

2. forget about weapons

If there is no war, the country that spends its treasury on weapons loses. A wise nation merely gets to trading and developing their society and economy paying distant lip service to the declining american empire. As the radical equalization of global standards of living increases further, american hegemony CANNOT survive. People will trade with each other and leave america out of it.

There is no enemy nation out there. Nobody gives a hoot about the US... it is pure egotism to think anyone does... likely they care about their own nation... and only chuckle to see america sinking in debt. Global communications have exposed the ethnocentricity of the US thinking, and once seen, it is childish and ignorant, but hardly superpower.

In a strategic sense, america's laisse-fair attitude to global warming could end the gulf stream flow, and plunge europe in to a long ice age of siberian/north canadian winters... I'm sure, though they would never say it publically, that this is a deliberate strategy on behalf of the neocons to sink europe once and for all.

As the worlds population tops 10 billion in the next few decades, and global fish stocks are killed off, and warming continues to produce destabilizing storms in tropical regions, i'm sure the busheviks kakkle at how they've undermined their strategic competitors who will be much more impacted.... but then again, they've dug their own graves.

America leads the world in nothing anymore except ignorance. Really rich people use their fortunes to either insulate themselves and live in a parallel ameirca, or to leave america for better government. The sign that nobody is investing in american society indicates the future... indian subcontinent levels of american poverty..... and as the last vestiges of empire crumble under the weight of an unsustainable military presence, little by little, regional competitors will chip away at the empire. There will be no big war, and like russia, america's space programme will simply run out of money that in generations to come, our great great grandchildren will be able to see satellites in the night sky that they can no longer afford to communicate with. It will be the only proof that once the nation had a great opportunity. Then they'll go to wallmart and use 1000 dollars to buy a walmart-burger and fries, as with inflation and long term fiscal decline, you can expect the dollar to achieve parity with the rupee and then the yen.

Don't worry about war... prepare yourself for poverty.

[Yupster]

3. The American Century

we have just ended.

It wouldn't surprise me a bit if this 21st Century will become a Chinese Century.

They have four times our population. Unless we are four times more productive than they are, then they will outbuild us. Over the long haul, I don't see how we could stay four times more productive than they are.

Our industries and inventions are slowing down, our schools are faltering, our businsses are becoming less and less profitable, and they are surging forward.

I don't see how in the long run we can stop them from passing us.

[TexasMexican]

4. I worry about China.

I think our country really messed up by sending so many manufacturing jobs over there.

I think we would have been better off sending the jobs to Mexico and other nations in our hemisphere.

It would have made more jobs there and less need for them to come to the US illegally. Also we wouldnt be nearly as fearful of these countries advancing as we are of China.

[Kinkistyle]

5. re-emergence of the "Old Powers"

Don't count out the EU, now that Eastern European coutnries are free to control its own destinies in conjunction with old democracies like France and Northern Europe.�@�@Its hard to believe that these countries that once used to kill each other like Israel and Palestine do, are now sharing the same currency and having fiscal policy determined by one another. Its inspiring. When Britain joins the EU, and I think eventually they will, we will see a new World Power in the making: Europe.

In the current state that the world is in, I think many of the other countries are identifying with the EU more than with Bush-led U.S., including Japan, Korea, most of SE-Asia etc... If Bush wins 2004, you can bet more and more former "friends" will be abandoning us and our "cause".

[IMayBeWrongBut]

6. oops edited

oops boy am I wrong just went and looked up the numbers 5 trillion yuan not dollars... heh oh well were fine then. :)