If anyone needs any evidence what a warlike mentality and actual

[KlatooBNikto]

wars will do to nations one has two good examples: japan and Germany. When they were drunk with power and bent on aggressive wars against everyone, they were feared and looked invincible.But it is only after their total ruin and their adoption of peaceful ways these two great nations are now the envy of the world for the right reasons.And India and China and Brazil on these same paths. It is the United States and Britain that are going into long term decline despite all the arms and fearsome weapons they have piled up.Their moral bankruptcy is going to be followed by material bankruptcy soon.

[BeFree]

1. Precisely why

Kerry must become the leader of the Free-world.

It comes down to this election, eh? Does America stay the course to complete destruction, or will America make the changes necessary to remain the world leader?

Let's go get those B*sh Bastards.

[IrateCitizen]

2. America's time as "world leader" is another decade or so, tops

Electing Kerry will only possibly make the fall a little less dramatic and painful as compared to Bush. It's inevitable.

- Our federal treasury is saddled with massive debt and trade deficits as far as the eye can see.
- Our federal treasury is collapsing under the weight of a massive military-industrial complex that is showing itself as increasingly overstretched and unable to perform "occupation" operations
- Our economic position is largely sustained by the fact that we suck up the majority of the world's investment capital through the IMF and World Bank
- We have made ZERO steps to address global warming, as opposed to European nations, which have set some pretty ambitious goals over the last few years and are taking real steps toward achieving them
- We have spurned international agreements (such as Kyoto, ICC, land-mine treaty, biological weapons treaty, etc.) under both R and D administrations, eroding our "leadership role" in the world
- Our uneven treatment of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is increasingly disturbing European nations and inflaming anti-American passions in the Middle East.

As Emmanuel Todd said in his excellent book, After the Empire, "The rest of the world is beginning to discover that it can get along without America, at the same time that America is discovering that it cannot get along without the rest of the world."

[bryant69]

3. I'm not sure I buy your analysis of China

It's not like they don't have an army. And it's not like they aren't, on occasion, militaristic.

What they do have is cheap labor. Which is precisely what America needs. We need to be driven into a third world economy, and then we will succeed, just like China. Take away our workers basic rights and minimum wage, and everything will be great. Hell, we probably deserve it.

Not that i actually believe this, just carrying the argument through.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[KlatooBNikto]

4. Although the Chinese Governement has made militaristic noises, it has been

at the forefront of economic cooperation with many Asian countries like India, Japan, Indonesia and Australia.That cooperation has moderated its military ambitions when China became the conciliator between India and Pakistan during their recent flare up.

The other reason I think China needs to be included in this group is the enormous emphasis China places on the education of its youth.This too will be a moderating influence.

They may also be excused for their military posturings when the PNAC crowd calls for the U.S. to become a global hegemon denying countries like China any say in acquiring resources like petroleum.I am sure the Chinese can read English and what they see is a power drunk PNAC out to get them.

[Karenina]

6. China has a one-child policy

Males are favored by families and the population has become dangerously unbalanced in the last 20 years. What do OLD men with lots of power and money DO when they are severely outnumbered by YOUNG men who have no propects for the lifestyle benefits they've been raised to expect? :shrug:

[KlatooBNikto]

7. I agree that as China becomes more economically and militarily

powerful, it may take the same road we have taken.That is going to be bad news for the rest of the world.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

5. Very true--

My dad was anti-war all his life, and he pointed out that at the time Germany started its military buildup in the late nineteenth century, it was one of the most developed countries in the world: the first nation to offer universal public education, making great advances in all the sciences, the first nation to offer social welfare programs, producing world-class writers and musicians, and so on. World War I not only devasted the country but also ruined Germany's reputation. World War II, made possible partly because Hitler was able to exploit the German people's resentment of the terms of the Versailles Treaty (which was awfully harsh), did even more damage.

The situation in Japan was similar. Before they started trying to conquer the world, they already had the highest living standard in Asia and were pretty well industrialized. World War II set them back nearly to zero in terms of infrastructure, although, of course, they still had the knowledge to rebuild everything. But when Americans complain about Japan not sending combat troops to Iraq (or earlier, not sending troops to the Gulf War), they fail to realize that the whole country was bombed intensively, causing millions of civilian deaths in addition to heavy losses among the troop. It's hard to find a family that didn't lose one or more relatives in World War II, and pictures taken in the first couple years after the war show half-starved people wearing rags and living in rubble. The children in those pictures are in their sixties now, so the realities of war are still strong in the public memory.

Koizumi's decision to send troops to Iraq was NOT popular.