Of course, Chushin, had you really wanted to be clever, you could have obfuscated my little precious-metal story even further by talking about how the foreign barbarians arbitraged the shit out of the Japanese at the close of the Edo jidai by trading Mexican silver dollars for devalued gold koban at one-third the market price, then selling the gold to the Chinese at a huge profit.
But then poor Quasi-tech would be totally confused. 
[quote]bdocksaints75 wrote:
On a side note the last time the U.S was in a war that they were willing to win at all costs was WW2 and we all know what we did to Japan[/quote]
Point of all this is that there really is no gain for any of the major powers in having a major war. Why would anyone want to conquer China? Or the USA? Whatâs the gain? Doing so would be like having a herd of elephants shit in your yard.
SoâŠwe have to amuse ourselves with peripheral wars, violent sports, drugs, unlimited sex with no meaning, video games, all sorts of mindless things like that.
[quote]Headhunter wrote:
[quote]bdocksaints75 wrote:
On a side note the last time the U.S was in a war that they were willing to win at all costs was WW2 and we all know what we did to Japan[/quote]
Point of all this is that there really is no gain for any of the major powers in having a major war. Why would anyone want to conquer China? Or the USA? Whatâs the gain? Doing so would be like having a herd of elephants shit in your yard.
SoâŠwe have to amuse ourselves with peripheral wars, violent sports, drugs, unlimited sex with no meaning, video games, all sorts of mindless things like that.
[/quote]
Brean: Let me ask you a simple question: Why do people go to war?
CIA Agent Charlie Young: Iâll play your silly game.
Brean: Okay. Why do people go to war?
Young: To ensure their way of life.
Brean: Would you go to war to do that?
Young: I have.
Brean: And if you went to war again, who would it be against? Your ability to fight a two-ocean war against who? Who? Sweden and Togo? That time is passed. Itâs over. The war of the future is nuclear terrorism, and itâll be against a small group of dissidents who, unbeknownst perhaps to their own government, have⊠blah blah blah. To go to that war, you have to be prepared, you gotta be alert, the public has gotta be alert.
Because that is the war of the future, and if youâre not gearing up to fight that war, then eventually the axe will fall, and youâre gonna be out on the street. You can call this a drill, you can call this job security, you can call it anything you like. But I got one for you: You said go to war to preserve your way of life? Well, Chuck, this is your way of life. And if your spy satellites donât see nothinâ, if there ainât no war, then you can go home and prematurely take up golf, my friend. 'Cause there ainât no war but ours.
[quote]Varqanir wrote:
[quote]Headhunter wrote:
[quote]bdocksaints75 wrote:
On a side note the last time the U.S was in a war that they were willing to win at all costs was WW2 and we all know what we did to Japan[/quote]
Point of all this is that there really is no gain for any of the major powers in having a major war. Why would anyone want to conquer China? Or the USA? Whatâs the gain? Doing so would be like having a herd of elephants shit in your yard.
SoâŠwe have to amuse ourselves with peripheral wars, violent sports, drugs, unlimited sex with no meaning, video games, all sorts of mindless things like that.
[/quote]
Brean: Let me ask you a simple question: Why do people go to war?
CIA Agent Charlie Young: Iâll play your silly game.
Brean: Okay. Why do people go to war?
Young: To ensure their way of life.
Brean: Would you go to war to do that?
Young: I have.
Brean: And if you went to war again, who would it be against? Your ability to fight a two-ocean war against who? Who? Sweden and Togo? That time is passed. Itâs over. The war of the future is nuclear terrorism, and itâll be against a small group of dissidents who, unbeknownst perhaps to their own government, have⊠blah blah blah. To go to that war, you have to be prepared, you gotta be alert, the public has gotta be alert. Because that is the war of the future, and if youâre not gearing up to fight that war, then eventually the axe will fall, and youâre gonna be out on the street. You can call this a drill, you can call this job security, you can call it anything you like. But I got one for you: You said go to war to preserve your way of life? Well, Chuck, this is your way of life. And if your spy satellites donât see nothinâ, if there ainât no war, then you can go home and prematurely take up golf, my friend. 'Cause there ainât no war but ours.[/quote]
This is why we need an Absolute State, with 100% surveillance of every human on earth 24/7/365. This certainly is the trend (understatement). Freedom will soon be seen as a luxury we can no longer afford, given the declining scale of weaponry you described.
If any small group with a grudge can destroy cities/states/nations, then there is no alternative to some sort of version of 1984, Brave New World, or We.
HH what youâre referring to is a single world government, like the UN. That reaks of more bad than good, and I can only imagine the manner in which elections would occur.
I still stand by the fact that I donât believe all out war is any longer a mainstay method of becoming dominant globally. Too many folks trade or are in bed with each other. Itâs now just a race to who has the most of what everyone else wants. China was once that place, with lots of resources and materials. Now the land is beginning to become less inhabitable and the world is looking to the last vestige of natural resources - Africa. Its mineral rich, but its instability is the great risk for anyone wanting to set up shop. It is also this internal chaos that will probably allow one nation to deal with African country A while another nation who doesnât like the first can deal with African country B.
Greater damage can be done without destruction by economic means. Guns are no longer necessary except for posturing or if you really want something the other guy has and no amount of chest thumping gets it (like oil). My naive perspective.
[quote]Chushin wrote:
[quote]Varqanir wrote:
Of course, Chushin, had you really wanted to be clever, you could have obfuscated my little precious-metal story even further by talking about how the foreign barbarians arbitraged the shit out of the Japanese at the close of the Edo jidai by trading Mexican silver dollars for devalued gold koban at one-third the market price, then selling the gold to the Chinese at a huge profit.
But then poor Quasi-tech would be totally confused. :)[/quote]
Darn, I forgot about that!
(Ha! As if I ever knew it!)[/quote]
Thats because you never read James Clavells Ă°"Gai-Jin".
Amidst the heaving bossoms and skullduggery, it gets mentioned.
And when I say heaving bosomsâŠ
Thats from Tai Pan though.
[quote]orion wrote:
And when I say heaving bosomsâŠ
Thats from Tai Pan though. [/quote]
âKiss the hand, huh? Wat for you no kiss my hand, eh?â She slammed the teapot down. âWat for you linger with cow eyes, hey? Ayeee yah!â
âYou ayeee yah yourselâ. And one more remark like that and and Iâll paddle you. You want to be paddled?â
âMen!â May-may shakily poured herself some tea, then slammed the cup down and got up. ââI hear Chinese mens gamble hugely, partikilly the womens,ââ she said, mimicking Shevaun, lifting her breasts to give them size and waggling her backside. âAnd you sats there and eat up her busums. Wat for my busums you no stare at, heya? âŠyou dinna stare at me like you did at that devil womans, even though Iâve no clotheses on. Whatâs wrong with my busums?â
I read Shogun first, when I was twelve, and it was one of the reasons I eventually went to Japan.
But Tai-Pan is the one I come back to and re-read every few years. I wonder, had I read that one first, if I would have ended up in Hong Kong.
Blackthorne vs Dirk Struan. Now there would be a good fight, considering theyâre pretty much the same guy. Struan would end up winning, of course. Blackthorne is too honorable to fight dirty.
May-may vs. Mariko would be another good one. Marikoâs arguably more badass, but May-may would probably just have her killed.
No one wants to win a war at the major level. Having an enemy justifies the existence of an oppressive state. Freedom is nice but what power over another human being is in that for anyone?
The Chinese donât really have history of world domination anywayâŠItâs simply not in their past,
SURE the World is different, but it wasnât that long ago a tiny Country by comparison Japan, whipped 'em
during the ââRape Of NankingâââŠProving ââsize doesnât matterââ in terms of populationâŠlook at England,
a very small country as wellâŠthey threw their weight around in over 90% of the Planet.
Itâs about the Military, and BrainsâŠDidnât we learn ANYTHING from â300â?
''This is SPARTA!!!"
[quote]Karado wrote:
Didnât we learn ANYTHING from â300â?
''This is SPARTA!!!"[/quote]
I hope you didnât seriously learn anything from 300.
Lol!
[quote]Karado wrote:
The Chinese donât really have history of world domination anywayâŠItâs simply not in their past,
SURE the World is different, but it wasnât that long ago a tiny Country by comparison Japan, whipped 'em
during the ââRape Of NankingâââŠProving ââsize doesnât matterââ in terms of populationâŠlook at England,
a very small country as wellâŠthey threw their weight around in over 90% of the Planet.
Itâs about the Military, and BrainsâŠDidnât we learn ANYTHING from â300â?
''This is SPARTA!!!"[/quote]
Chinaâs strength over the years was from their closed society and isolation from the rest of the world. Not to mention mountain goat terrain that made for a chalenging battlefield for would-be conquerers.
What everyone seems to have missed, what if they team up with Russia? I see it as being quite probable.
Who do we have to team up with Canada? What do they have besides 8% beer and hockey? Australia? Kangaroo shit and Aboriginies. England? Piss-warm beer and an archaic monarchy-based government and living on the dole. France? Let us not even go there, even though the Eiffel tower cound be melted down for 5 or 6 Abrams tanks.
Rob
This is why you do not invade China.
[quote]steven alex wrote:
Who would win a war between the USA and China?
[/quote]
Too many ifs, hows and buts. Look at Japanâs tactics in WWII. Attempt to destroy the US Navy(Pearl Harbor), invade every strategically important island in the Pacific(basically anywhere capable of having an airstrip), take the oil from the Dutch in the East Indies and attempt to overtake the US in building their Navy. Only this is not 1941 and neither China nor the US or warfare are what they were. Iâd say your question is way too difficult even if you presented a plan. BTW if China takes Taiwan the US are required under their treaty obligations to take it back. Same with Japan.
[quote]SexMachine wrote:
[quote]steven alex wrote:
Who would win a war between the USA and China?
[/quote]
Too many ifs, hows and buts. Look at Japanâs tactics in WWII. Attempt to destroy the US Navy(Pearl Harbor), invade every strategically important island in the Pacific(basically anywhere capable of having an airstrip), take the oil from the Dutch in the East Indies and attempt to overtake the US in building their Navy. Only this is not 1941 and neither China nor the US or warfare are what they were. Iâd say your question is way too difficult even if you presented a plan. BTW if China takes Taiwan the US are required under their treaty obligations to take it back. Same with Japan.[/quote]
