Irvine511 said:
but both of these countries have over one billion people. the US has about 300 million.
the Chinese economy will be the biggest in the world by 2020, and the majority of the world's engineers -- due to the excellence of math and science education in both these countries -- will come from India and China.
this doesn't have to be a threat to the US, but it's foolish to think that we will retain the current economic hegemony that we've enjoyed since WW2.
i assume "the costs of fighting Al-Qaeda" don't include the war in Iraq? potential conflicts with North Korea and Iran?
after all, our military is stretched quite thin:
[q]U.S. Army Extends Iraq Duty for 4,000
By ROBERT BURNS
The Associated Press
Monday, September 25, 2006; 2:57 PM
WASHINGTON -- The Army is stretched so thin by the war in Iraq that it is again extending the combat tours of thousands of soldiers beyond the promised 12 months _ the second such move since August.
Soldiers of the 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division had been expecting to return to their home base in Germany in early January. Instead, they will stay in Iraq at least until late February, several officials said Monday. The soldiers are operating in western Anbar province, one of the most violent and dangerous parts of Iraq.
"The Army is coming to the end of its rope in Iraq," said Loren Thompson, a defense analyst at the Lexington Institute, a private research group. "It simply does not have enough active-duty military personnel to sustain the current level of effort."
Of the 142,000 U.S. troops now in Iraq, nearly 120,000 are Army soldiers.
The tour extension affects between 3,500 and 4,000 soldiers in the brigade, officials said. They spoke only on condition of anonymity because the Pentagon had yet to make an announcement.
[/q]
China and India's population relative to the rest of the worlds population is not much different than it was 50 years ago, 100 years ago, and based on census records discovered in China from the 1st century and estimates about the world population back then, not much different 2,000 years ago. China and India have had the edge in population probably as far back as 5,000 years ago.
The Chinese economy will be the biggest in the world in 2020 because the Chinese are moving towards Capitalism and a Free Market economy. They are trying to join the economic order that the United States set up after World War II that has led to the highest standard of living in the history of the planet. China is not changing the world, the world is slowly changing China. One only has to look at say the China of 1975 and compare it to the China of 2006 to see this.
The "economic hegemony" the US had right after World War II was do in large part to the destruction of most of Europe and other area's of the world. The United States actively helped to rebuild the economies of Europe, Japan and other area's of the world and helped create the economic order we have today. US "Economic Hegemony" that it had after World War II was gone within 20 years and replaced by an Economic order built on several dozen countries economies that were growing closer and ever more interdependent.
Even if you included the War in Iraq, the War in Afghanistan, everything that is spent on the military every year, as well as reconstruction cost and economic aid, the United States is still spending a smaller portion of its GDP on these things, than the percentage of GDP it was spending during the 1980s on defense.
The United States military currently only has 27 of its 89 ground combat Brigades deployed around the world. The other 62 are stationed at long term bases in Germany, Japan, and the United States.
Delaying a single brigade from coming home for two months or rushing a brigade to a certain theater of operations faster than anticipated is nothing new and has been going on for over three years now. The 3rd Infantry Division that first went into Iraq in March 2003 and had been in Kuwait as early as August of 2002, had its come home date postponed by 3 to 4 months.
The only thing that is stressing the people in the force more than 2 or 3 years ago in terms of the number of deployments, is the decision by the administration not to continue to rotate National Guard Combat Brigades in and out of Iraq at the same level that Active Army and Marine Combat brigades were going in and out.
Nearly 40% of the Ground Combat Brigades the United States has are in the National Guard. 34 Brigades to be exact. In the coming deployment cycle only 1 Brigade out of the 17 that will be going to Iraq will be a National Guard Brigade. The plan seems to be that no more than 1 National Guard Brigade out of 34 total will be deployed outside of the United States per year.
This leaves the Active Army and Marine Corp combat Brigades alone to bear the brunt of nearly all of the deployment duties every year. The ratio of Active Army and Marine Corp Brigades deployed to those resting from a deployment at home will be about 1 to 1. Early on in 2004 and early 2005, the ratio was 1 to 2 because the National Guard Brigades were heavily involved.
The reality is the force is only "thinly spread" if your only looking at the Active component. With National Guard only deploying 1 combat Brigade a year overseas out of a total of 34 now, there is a lot in reserve that could be deployed if the administration wanted to. Although they would never want to do this, active Brigades resting from their deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan could also be sent back immediately or elsewhere if the they felt the situation required it.
After nearly 4 years in Iraq, there is a lot of Army equipment that needs extensive repairs and new equipment needs to be purchased to replace completely worn out equipment. The Army budget will need to be increased by 20% this year at a minimum to insure that all Combat Brigades continue to have the equipment they need to train with while at home and fight with while they are in Iraq.
but i go one step further: Your day will come Mother*****s (Bush & Bin Laden) and no one in the world will be jumping for joy higher than me when I see your bullet-ridden bodies lying for everyone to see. i think both Bush with his criminals & Bin Laden with his criminals are a disgrace for their religions.
