Start Hedging (Trade War)

[exploited]

Assuming that it doesn't go nuclear, China does not pose anywhere close to the same military threat as Germany did. Or Russia, for that matter.

The Chinese are at a severe geostrategic disadvantage. The fact is that we could cripple at least one-third of their industrial and agricultural capacity with the use of maybe two-dozen bunker-busters on the Three Gorges Dam. No nukes needed. Further to the point, their entire coastline is dotted by enemies, who could easily adopt nuclear weapons, as mentioned by Saz. They can't even produce enough food to feed themselves reliably in peace-time, let alone war-time.

Personally, I think without the conscious decision of the Chinese government to be utterly destroyed, the chance of military conflict is very low. They simply do not have what it takes. They can throw a billion people at the war, it matters not. The entire game of the Chinese is to take advantage of the fact they will gladly sacrifice people in a way that the West does not like doing. "Give a dictator an inch," basically, which we've been doing for decades, but which we could easily stop doing at a moments notice.

Beyond that, the only way they can legitimately threaten us militarily is with nukes.

[Kane]

[John Galt]

The francoprussian war was a war of French aggression and the French for wrecked, causing problems even worse than they were trying to stop with their aggression

[John Galt]

also yes, Poland has been shit on for generations. they lasted longer against the two biggest powers in europe for longer than france lasted against one of them -- while the french and english, both who gave assurances of their aid, did nothing. the british were worse since they should have declared on the USSR as well over it. the poles i'd want on my side, and you're right that i think they actually would want to go to war against russia. if we could get Finland in NATO that would really upset russia (they will be having winter war flashbacks) and they would be solid. get swedish steel involved too just for good measure

i do like that Trump is......... encouraging NATO allies into improving their defense spending. france has a carrier and the british are building them so they have some force projection, and would be involved. if we could all move on from WWII then the germans and the japanese would be our two greatest allies, a triumvirate of powerhouses strategically positioned. the treaty on the final settlement with respect to germany was all well and good 30 years ago, but now, they should be free to build up their armed forces again, and japan should not be limited to "Self defense forces" (of which they are totally just pretending to do anyway)

[Saz]

[spacemonkey]

The world economy = a monopoly game board that is all bought up, and they're trying to figure a way to keep the game going indefinitely.

[John Galt]

[Saz]

[exploited]

[John Galt]

that's what i appreciates about yous