know your friends well, but your enemies better, why the united states will fall Options

[sadolakced acid]

The United States of America.

the promise land?
land of milk and honey?
land of the mountain of gold?

maybe.

yet, like all empires, doomed to fail.

why, you ask? mayhaps it's politics. mayhaps it's terrorists. or mayhaps it's cultural.

So says the old joke, that people who only know one language are americans. This may be true for some, but with more and more high schools requiring foriegn languages, this is slowly changing.

yet to what purpose? sure, we might learn the culture of the romans, the french, the spanish (and mexicans), and the germans. but will this help us in the world?

if we consider the world as a whole, what is the greatest threat to the United States of America? Is it russia? they seem to be fading from the stage, their act over, exiting stage left.

is it the middle east? certainly they are the source for terrorists. Yet what do terrorists do? they kill people. They terrorize. yet this is not what kills a nation. Terrorist's actions unify America, they make it stronger.

then what is the threat?

let's look at recent events.

george bush annouces that the united states will return to the moon by 2019.
and china anounces that they will put a man on the moon by 2018.

a brilliant display of one-up-manship if it's pulled off.

this is a nation that has vast potential, and they are begining to tap it. Sure, there are growing pains, but it means they are growing.

so let's consider this for a second. most every nation, china included, teach thier children to speak english.

To do this, they read american books, learn from american teachers, and watch american movies.

American culture is exported to other countries. yet these countries don't completely ignore thier own culture. the two- american culture and local culture- coexist.

jump to america.

a country where youths make jokes based on racial stereotypes from 100 years ago.

a country where most children's knowledge of chinese is how to say a few bad words.

a country where other cultures are not valued, or studied.

let us look to the future. Is the united states going to be able to sell things to china? not anymore, not with our limited understanding of thier culture.

but they, on the other, they have hundreds of thousands of college graduates who know how to operate in a western buisness world, who know what americans want, and can give it to them for much cheaper.

So what, you ask. Why should it matter?

the answer is staring you in the face. America dominates because america innovates. the internet. automobiles. aeroplanes. all created here.

so what happens when america loses it's innovation? then it's military weapons cease to be the worlds best. It's industry ceases to do things others cannot. It's commerce soon depends on someone else. and it's dominence-- it's dominence fades.

and thus the empire falls.

[sadolakced acid]

if it's so easy, why have only 3 countries done it?

sure, solid rockets are quite easy. liquid rockets- the type required for a space launch, are quite complex.

solid rockets can only be used as jettisonable external boosters.

[*kryogenix*]

if it's so easy, why have only 3 countries done it?

sure, solid rockets are quite easy.  liquid rockets- the type required for a space launch, are quite complex.

solid rockets can only be used as jettisonable external boosters.

3 countries have gotten a man into space. But more have gotten a rocket into space. The EU has the Ariane project and Japan has the MLV.

Not to mention the private groups (including students!) that have gotten rockets.

The problem is getting a man inside and bringing him back alive.

The AK-47 was made by the Russian, and was sold to China during the fall of the Soviet Union. Along with half of there armor and jets. Chinas main jet is the MIG, once again a Russian built war machine. Yes, they sold one of there aircraft carriers to China. But why can't China produce there own aircraft carriers? You also have to take into fact that China is Communist, the ideals of communism is a stock pile of power for a mass war. I dought that is what China has in mind, they are leaning towards Democracy now-a-days. Give it a few years, and China will be back to its old ways. China, is a super power, but so is the US, Brittan, Canada, and Russia. The Third largest military is Russia, during the cold war, Russia had 4x the amount of long range nuqs that the US had. During the fall of the USSR, they "disappeared". Now, remember when China first became a Communist country, it was a hell hole. The Russian economy is growing at nearly eight percent, adjusted for inflation. With a rising middle class, retail sales have been growing about 20 percent a year. When you are in Russia, the average family car is a Mercedes. It is not because of the so called “Russian Mob” now a days, its because companies have started to invest billions into the Russia Economy.

I don't think the Russians sold the production rights of the AK-47 to China. China is also going to use the Jian-10, a domestically developed fighter (although they use Russian and Israeli technology onboard). China bought the aircraft carrier because they're studying the hull of the carrier. They're probably reverse engineering everything so that they can make their own.

China also doesn't seem to be leaning towards democracy nowadays, they're leaning towards a more free-market economy.