World war 3

Nuclear holocaust isn't going to stimulate any economy.

and I believe it would actually be WW6

1). 7 years War (French & Indian War here)
2). What we call WWI
3). What we call WWII
4). The Cold War
5). The Global War on Terror

Revolutionary war be considered a World War? France,Brits, Germans?

global scale, while the others had (or have) actions all over the world. More of a geography thing than a list of participants.

1492-Current (it's still ongoing in central South America)

The hope seems to be that the US will do the "grunt work" in order to ensure Israel's regional supremacy.

Obama's unlikely to follow that tack.
Romney will be sending our boys and girls to Tehran on the cheap the day after he's sworn in.

That's a funky little right-wing myth they use to support their warmongering.

Why did the US economy take off after the war? Two major factors.

1) heavy government investment in American production. Public funds saturated every level of business, granting in effect heavy subsidies for wartime production. There doesn't need to be a war for this sort of thing, however.

2) Our "competitors" in the global market were largely shattered. Europe and Asia were crushed by the war, the Middle East and Africa weren't in any condition to compete anyway, and the Arab-Israeli wars and the fight against colonialism in Africa kept them from catching up. Essentially the United States was the only supplier AND the major market... Our money was the most valuable and our goods were the most desired. A lot of our current troubles stem from our government spending nearly forty years convincing themselves that this was the natural order of things, rather than preparing for the reemergence of competition from the rest of the world.

Not to mention that everyone who wanted a job had a job. But, you don't have to have a war to create those conditions.

It's just that the uber rich conservative idiots wont let you spend that kind of money on improving the economy, but it's a ok to spend vast amounts on wars.

Never in the history of the world has a nation been brought down by improving and stimulating their economy through spending on the poor and middle class. But many a nation has been destroyed by the costs of war.

WWII took millions of men and women out of the job market so most any civilian who wanted a job could easily find one and many jobs paid quite well. However, rationing was implemented to concentrate on war production and while people had money, there wasn't much to buy. At the end of the war, the GI Bill was authorized and a number of returning vets who would have been seeking a job went to college instead. People had money and there was a great demand for consumer products and with the industries of most of the other major nations devastated, there was a big market for American products overseas.

I don't think the US could replicate such conditions in peacetime.

well stated. I believe I recently listened to a lecture that had the same summation of the 1950ish era.

to managing the world.

They promoted capitalism during the Cold War and defined it as Wall Street. All the focus is still on the Dow in DC.

Who cares if people are losing their jobs. Things are great if the Dow is up.

America's post WW2 prosperity had a lot of other factors besides American's being so superior to the rest of the world. Our competition had been crushed and destroyed much of their manufacturing infrastructure.

The story of Dr. Edwards Demings success with SPC in America during WW2 and the subsequent post war amnesia American Manufacturing had about him is interesting to me.

Dr. Deming went to Japan in the fifties and they devoured his quality and SPC concepts and he was the basis for their rebuild of their manufacturing capability. His simple concept of "continuous improvement" led them from making tin toys (where you could still see the American labeling on the inside from the oil can the toy used to be) to the best cars,machine tools and electronic devices of the world.

In the eighties, when the Japanese manufacturing miracle was cleaning America's clocks, they said to us; "Well, geez, Americans, all we did was listen and embrace this Dr. Deming that you tossed out on his ass after WW2."

American exceptionalism is more like American arrogance. And our arrogance has caused us to repeat all the classic historical mistakes of large empires. I don't think we are in decline. I merely hope we assume our rightful and humble place as damn good players on the world stage that happens to have a lot of other good players doing what they're good at also.

The main thing we're still world class is tending to our bloated military-industrial-congressional complex. Making stuff with the sole purpose of killing people and blowing stuff up while the rest of the world makes cooler and cooler things average consumers can really use.

Think of the good America could bring to the world if it built up a "war time effort" directed at solving global warming, poverty, health and economic fairness and prosperity! Sadly, the selfish greedheads that now own American government outright are not directing our national will in those areas. One sad consequence of the concentration of wealth those primitive selfish people have wrought. The greed of the .001% American wealthy is needlessly wrecking the entire world so those sociopaths can accumulate even more yachts, tax breaks, vacation homes, private jets, home auto elevators and cut to the front of the line in trendy night spots.

-90% Jimmy

nt

and America is not going to send troops to occupy Iran (unless Romney wins, and even then...). Neither are the European powers.


A regional war is possible if Israel attacks Iran but even that is unlikely. Egypt has it's own problems right now and they are the major military power in the area. Syria is in the midst of it's own civil war too. Militarily right now, Iran pretty much stands alone.


Now, if you want another oil embargo and this time from every Arab state in the Middle East, that is a different story.

The main difference is JOBS, ww2 created a lot of jobs for women, and sent a lot of men overseas to fight. The economy was built upon fair wages for a days work, not the same now, more work for unlivable wages won't spur the economy. Iran is not a strong enough long term threat to warrant a draft or long term personnel investments in the military. The military is on a 1 year rotation since the pull out of iraq, the military would go back to a six month rotation. Politically, a draft would be a disaster since the majority of our politicians have never fought in a war and would be lambasted for insisting everyone finish a fight that an ally started.

and we will veto a resolution condemning the act.

from an international stand point it would be chaos at the U.N. Russia and China would be furious, they do a lot of business in addition to the oil contracts they have. India and Japan also acquire a large percentage of their oil from Iran.

Which we OWN.

If Romney wins the election I would not be surprised if Israel does indeed invade, and Romney would be more than happy to become a "war president" just like Bush aspired to be...

But that isn't going to fix the economy. It will only bring destruction and famine for the multitudes.

Where is the fruit cake wingnut smiley?

This can be done in a much more civil manner...

As I read these posts I agree with you all 100% war dosnt fix economies it destroys them. If we had politicians like we did In the FDR years we would be better off.

Into a Great Depression the likes of which no one has ever seen before. Oil is the lifeblood of the global economy, and an oil shock like that resulting from an Iran-Israel war would be devastating. Saudi Arabia and Iraq would probably get sucked in, and the entire region's oil exports would shut down.

I wouldn't be surprised if marshal law and rationing was declared, given how much we rely on oil for food, transportation, and importation of goods from overseas.

If you're really worried about a war like this, invest in land, seeds, gardening tools, a flock of chickens, and a cabinet of quality guns and ammo.