Military buildup

[MH]

Originally Posted by TLAM Strike

This one better then?

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by TLAM Strike

Is this going to be in the next LWAMI mod?

[TLAM Strike]

Originally Posted by Oberon

Is this going to be in the next LWAMI mod?

Fear the Aegis Submarine!!

[kraznyi_oktjabr]

Originally Posted by TLAM Strike

How many boilers this monster have?

This "boat" brings to my mind the Kalamity class.

[mapuc]

Some weeks ago I saw a video on youtube. I can't remember what it was about. but I remember a viewer wrote, that his friend, who was in the army, had told him. that there are huge military movements in USA, Europe and Asia and they should be waiting to receive the red alert at any time.

I do not know about the knowledge of the american soldie, but here in Denmark or Sweden an ordinary soldier gets none info whatsoever.

Not like that I wrote about above.

Markus

[Rockstar]

Originally Posted by mapuc

Some weeks ago I saw a video on youtube. I can't remember what it was about. but I remember a viewer wrote, that his friend, who was in the army, had told him. that there are huge military movements in USA, Europe and Asia and they should be waiting to receive the red alert at any time.

I do not know about the knowledge of the american soldie, but here in Denmark or Sweden an ordinary soldier gets none info whatsoever.

Not like that I wrote about above.

Markus

It's space aliens man. Why do think we stopped going to the moon? They kicked us off that's why and now they're preparing to launch an invasion against earth.

I got my survival bunker all stocked up for the big one. Ain't no aliens gonna get me without a fight.


.

[magicstix]

Originally Posted by Rockstar

It's space aliens man. Why do think we stopped going to the moon? They kicked us off that's why and now they're preparing to launch an invasion against earth.

I got my survival bunker all stocked up for the big one. Ain't no aliens gonna get me without a fight.


.

Nah, it's just the New World Order prepping for their overthrow of human civilization.

[mapuc]

Originally Posted by Rockstar

It's space aliens man. Why do think we stopped going to the moon? They kicked us off that's why and now they're preparing to launch an invasion against earth.

I got my survival bunker all stocked up for the big one. Ain't no aliens gonna get me without a fight.


.

Don't be afraid. Every Aliens are like Paul. Just give him a joint and he will be your friend for life.

Markus

I suspect we're seeing just the opposite effect to that proposed by the OP.

Too be sure, armaments have increased in cost almost exponentially but firepower can be delivered with a theoretical accuracy that was only dreamed of in the Cold War era. Armed drones are far less destabilizing than fleets of bombers.

Most of the 30,000+ nuclear weapons deployed in 1989 have been dismantled, their fissile material often recycled as fuel for civilian power plants. The 40,000 Soviet tanks that were once perceived to be ready to pour across the Inter-German border have mostly become consumer goods after being scrapped as unnecessary. Chemical weapons arsenals have been mostly destroyed, there are fewer aircraft carriers at sea than at any time since the London Treaty was signed in 1930 and ideological differences between the global powers are not really seen as a cause for armed conflict anymore.

It seems that people have forgotten that the overwhelming tendency is for developed countries to wage war against each other in times of plenty, when surpluses can be spent freely and massive internal debts incurred to pay for it all. Right now nobody can afford to war on a whim and negotiation for disputed resources in invariably cheaper than combat when cash is low.

My wife considers me an incurable pessimist, something that I would certainly agree with but I really think that global war or even war between regional superpowers is off the table for the foreseeable future. To be sure, there will be speed bumps, assorted crisis' and the odd angry shot, but a repeat of the numbered World Wars or even a significant regional conflict in the early 21st Century is very unlikely in my opinion.

Opinion offered up with the caveat that you can't fix stupid so fear, demagoguery, paranoia and greed can change this prediction in unpredictable ways.

[magicstix]

Originally Posted by Randomizer

I suspect we're seeing just the opposite effect to that proposed by the OP.

It seems that people have forgotten that the overwhelming tendency is for developed countries to wage war against each other in times of plenty, when surpluses can be spent freely and massive internal debts incurred to pay for it all. Right now nobody can afford to war on a whim and negotiation for disputed resources in invariably cheaper than combat when cash is low.

I disagree. Both Germany and Japan began their wars of aggression specifically *BECAUSE* they had high debt (in the case of Germany) and few resources (in the case of Japan).

We're seeing the exact same setup with China and the West. China needs resources to feed its economy, but can't pull enough of them together. The West is in massive debt, a lot of it to China, and a war could be seen as a way to get a clean slate financially.

China has always eyed Siberia jealously for its resources, and Russia has always eyed China suspiciously for this very reason. If and when China's economy collapses under its own weight, I wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised if they used military means to get what they want.

I disagree. Both Germany and Japan began their wars of aggression specifically *BECAUSE* they had high debt (in the case of Germany) and few resources (in the case of Japan).

Fair ball but I think you are confusing the existence of debt with economic prosperity. In 1939 Germany was wealthier than it had ever been with surpluses sufficient to create a national television network, a national electronic airways system rivaling that of the USA and more sophisticated than that found in any other country, subsidized "Strength Through Joy" worker vacations, Autobahns and Volkswagen Beetles. These are not the trappings of economic weakness.

Likewise Japan had squandered much of her industrial wealth in a decade of fighting in China and military, particularly naval, expansion but had still seen a continual increase in per capita GDP through much of the Thirties. Only when the American trade embargo and seizure of Japaneses assets threatened what economic strength remained did the military junta resort to war.

Even the much maligned tactic of Appeasement as seen at Munich provided time for the Western Allies, particularly Britain, to ramp up their economies in preparation for war.

If lack of wealth causes wars, why was there peace between the economic powers during the Great Depression when wealth vanished throughout the global economy? Even Mussolini's Italy waited until economic growth had resumed before engineering a war with Ethiopia in 1935.

Resource wars are largely the subject of fiction and those that have occurred almost always have had deeper and more complex political causes lurking behind the hyperbole. My biggest concern for peace is that jingoistic paranoia, particularly with regards to the notional or imagined threats posed by the PRC might make fear of war become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

For details on the belligerent's economies in the lead up to WW2 see The War of the World by Niall Ferguson.

[Kazuaki Shimazaki II]

Originally Posted by TLAM Strike

This one better then?

Belgrano's escorts didn't have any demi-decent sonar. Though I agree with the point that surface vessels are more vulnerable to subs than they like to admit.

[TarJak]

Originally Posted by Randomizer

Fair ball but I think you are confusing the existence of debt with economic prosperity. In 1939 Germany was wealthier than it had ever been with surpluses sufficient to create a national television network, a national electronic airways system rivaling that of the USA and more sophisticated than that found in any other country, subsidized "Strength Through Joy" worker vacations, Autobahns and Volkswagen Beetles. These are not the trappings of economic weakness.

Likewise Japan had squandered much of her industrial wealth in a decade of fighting in China and military, particularly naval, expansion but had still seen a continual increase in per capita GDP through much of the Thirties. Only when the American trade embargo and seizure of Japaneses assets threatened what economic strength remained did the military junta resort to war.

Even the much maligned tactic of Appeasement as seen at Munich provided time for the Western Allies, particularly Britain, to ramp up their economies in preparation for war.

If lack of wealth causes wars, why was there peace between the economic powers during the Great Depression when wealth vanished throughout the global economy? Even Mussolini's Italy waited until economic growth had resumed before engineering a war with Ethiopia in 1935.

Resource wars are largely the subject of fiction and those that have occurred almost always have had deeper and more complex political causes lurking behind the hyperbole. My biggest concern for peace is that jingoistic paranoia, particularly with regards to the notional or imagined threats posed by the PRC might make fear of war become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

For details on the belligerent's economies in the lead up to WW2 see The War of the World by Niall Ferguson.

Got to disagree with you on your point about resource wars being fictional. Japan's expansion in the 1930's and into the 40's was ALL about resources and access to them. It was no fiction that they needed access to oil, rubber etc. to continue their imperialist desires and that desire itself was due to the fact that Japan was largely shut out of resource trading by the Western Powers whose own imperial desires had led them to dominate most of Asia in order to gain the resources they needed to feed that desire: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causes_...es_and_markets

Germany's economic wealth in the later part of the 1930's was also deficit based, which meant that it was funded by loans which, in a number of historian's opinions, Hitler never intended to repay. Going to way was one way of doing that. In the four years before 1939, wages, and prices were fixed by the government and violators were interred in concentration camps. Their massive unemployment problems in the early 30's were solved in part by removing Jewish workers from the economy and replacing them with unemployed non-Jews.

By 1942, if they had not started using forced labour (strangely enough bringin Jews back to work), the German economy would have collapsed under the weight of their wartime efforts.

On China in 2011, does anyone not remember that during the GFC, China's economy was stimulated to the tune of US$586Billion??? Whilst America owed them some of that money, where did the rest come from? Also, it is estimated that about 20% of the loans made under the stimulus package are likely to be written off! That's a whopping $117Billion up in smoke! The Chinese way of dealing with bad loans is a bit different though: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43600432...n_the_economy/

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by Kazuaki Shimazaki II

Belgrano's escorts didn't have any demi-decent sonar. Though I agree with the point that surface vessels are more vulnerable to subs than they like to admit.

The mere thought of Argentinas SSKs gave the British fleet kittens, heck if a dozy Argie engineer hadn't have put the umbilical cable to the San Luis's torpedoes in backwards then we could have lost at least two warships to her.
The Santa Fe also acted as a deterrent to our fleet until she was crippled by a DC attack and forced to surrender, and she was an old Balao class.

I wonder if you take the actual number of world leaders from every Nation and worked out how many people they accutaly represent globaly, then worked out how many leaders are actively carring out the wishes of all those humans, sorreee, I get carried away .