No reason to start howling over this...time will tell if any of us are right or wrong...

[edit] Although, I think that if Europe collapses, we will all be dead and gone before that...it certainly won't happen in the recent future.

Well, if you believe the CIA reports with China's rise to power, Europe doesn't fair too well by 2020-2025. You will be left with 3 major powers - USA, China, India. Europe fades into obscurity and insignificance.

There is a thread on that in this GT forum somewhere.

-S

Thing is, I don't.

Europe as a continent is just as powerful as China or India. Other than the rather inconsequential Balkans, I think most of Europe wouldn't mind morphing into a huge entity. And Europe is probably more stable than the US, India, China and Russia. Its population growth has stabilized. India at its current rate will surpass China's population in a matter of years, but nearly half of India is starving even today. US soil is being unfairly pressured by horribly inefficient farming methods, and China as well.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAA...wait, you are serious, let me laugh harder.

I guess you guys are booming over there economically then. Not!! You guys always head down faster than we do, but the problem is, your ability to rebound is not there. Noticed that lately? :D

Anyway, I don't make the news, I just report it. The CIA however is typically not wrong in cases like this, but believe what you want to believe. Something tells me that you will be believing on faith alone this time....

-S

PS. I guess Christmas tree sales are still holding steady in Europe, though Germany is looking to take a massive beating at over 3%!
http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking...ry_315374.html

You bunch a girls. Oh ! lets not offend the Brits !

Hell ! They can't even build a proper loo and they know it.

They need to fight their corupt over self serveing politicians like the rest of us and take their country back.

I (mostly) believe in facts that comes from neutral soruces. Since CIA is a part of the United States Gov. I would take any reports they have about China with a pinch of salt...

Again, that's me.

I think the only way to stop China from becoming a viable rival to the US is nukes. And since that isn't going to happen, then I have to believe it.

India - same story.

-S

Well, I don't really see a problem with the US having some competiton out there in the big world...as long as it won't end with nukes, but as you say, that ain't gonna happen...

Are you sure? Lots of tension these days. More so than I ever noticed during the cold war.

-S

It all comes down to the basic rule: Waiting until the other one makes the first move. No matter how crazy you are, unless you are a James Bond villain, you don't want a nuclear war, thus noone will take that last fatal step. You wait untl your enemy takes the first step instead. That's how it worked during the cold war, hopefully it will work in the future too.

And tons of paranoia too. ;)

With good reason. The rhetoric has reached levels far beyond anything seen during the cold war.

-S

#]

Uh, hello? Like to expand on that?

Glad to see that the STRAITSTIMES Newspaper is the bible of world quotes ?,were is it from anyway.:hmm:

Pft, people have been forecasting the downfall of Europe since the Middle Ages and probably before that. :dead:
It'll survive, it's survived countless wars, changes of power, tyrants, dictators and foreign invasions.

Well said :up:

I'd agree with you if you had a military to fight with, which is the difference between now and then. You have almost none.

But this downfall will not be of military origin in the beginning. It will be economic. Something the world has not had to face until the last 100 years.

-S

:rotfl:

Now seriously, I do not have to post all the sources and graphs again showing europe's defense budget and military capabilities compared to other nations, particulary Russia and China? :roll: