Should Germany join the United States as a superpower?

[phylo_roadking]

There are many other ways Germany could contribute,without triggering any hysteria.

Spend to hire Icelandic mercenaries??? And sort two problems at once....

[statemachine]

Germany is really big into embedded computing,phylo.They have monthly innovations and advances.Intelligence and sensors are becoming a larger part of weapons systems every year.

[Paddy Keating]

Neither the Americans nor the Germans have sound track records as imperialists...

[statemachine]

What the heck is a sound track record?Perhaps you can give us an example of good management.

[phylo_roadking]

Germany is really big into embedded computing,phylo.They have monthly innovations and advances.Intelligence and sensors are becoming a larger part of weapons systems every year

O great - they'll KNOW in detail who's invading them...

[statemachine]

Do you see a conventional invasion force upsetting the status quo in Europe,phylo?Who can gauge how far things go before the nuclear option gets considered?I suppose residing in the British Isles you still have the olde comfort of knowing that mainland Europe will always get it before you do,eh?

[phylo_roadking]

I suppose residing in the British Isles you still have the olde comfort of knowing that mainland Europe will always get it before you do,eh

Why should it? If it was ME sitting in a bunker in Russia, and the decision had been taken to invade and occupy Western Europe and the fact that it would involve the use of nuclear weapons at SOME point - and I had to work out the easiest way to do it....first neutralise the US' point of entry into Europe, both politically as well as militarily. And press the button marked "United Kingdom".

iI doesn't matter what happens AFTER that FOR US - either conventionally or nuclear - but it'll convern the U.S. *IF* it then intervenes in Europe...for it will be fighting with one hand behind its back. Eric Blair saw that 60 years ago this year....

..."Airstrip One".

[statemachine]

It doesn't have to be all or nothing.WWII didn't start like that.Conventional,or technical superiority might be the limited options.

[phylo_roadking]

It doesn't have to be all or nothing

Wiping the UK off the map wouldn't be all or nothing. It would send a VERY interesting lesson to the leaders' of the EU...AND it would be cheap LOL

WWII didn't start like that

Actually it both was and wasn't; it WAS almost the full effort of the THEN-Wehrmacht against Poland, and by the end of Poland German war amteriel and logistics had been drined far further than expected...

BUT in the West it wasn't "All" because most nations started with their regular army cadres and their reservists being called up. Longterm mass conscription wasn't expected to muster the WWI-size armies until 1941.

[august]

are you gentlemen saying that you really feel russia would invade the eu? i just don't see it. they would have to be m.a.d. as in mutually assured destruction.

[phylo_roadking]

Which is more mad? Considering the possibility....or actually threatening a neighbouring and independent country with nuclear attack if that country doesn't change it's defence policy?

[statemachine]

Boris might simply turn off the gas.

[august]

it's not a threat. i don't understand your reasoning. and it's not defence one would be preoccupied with if they invaded the eu. turn of the gas = isolating russia from the rest of the world, everything. freezing all assets, stopping all trade, etc. "cut off their nose," so to speak. phylo, you have serious issues with america. what did we ever do to you?

[statemachine]

Doesn't most of the EU depend on the flow of gas from the Soviet Union?August,you live in Florida?Just imagine how uncomfortable the interruption of the gas supply would be in January when temperatures are below zero.People are too soft for that now.Trade can wait,freezing is much more immediate.Boris doesn't need to get rough.

[phylo_roadking]

Re gas - I could be cold....or I could be dead. I'd have to vote for cold, just on a point of honour

Re America - as I said back up the thread - me personally, nothing. My country - quite a lot. FDR had a strange way of treating his allies, and Eisenhower inherited it. A series of administrations forced their various "democratic" allies into increasing reliance on the U.S. I don't happen to agree with that policy. I certainly don't like done to me by a country that declares loudly to absolutely anyone who'll listen at the same time that they're the Good Guys. Never been one for double standards.

Remember - it was an AMERICAN that wrote "My country - may she always be right; but My Country, right or wrong..."