3 ms·

Confidence can be ... enforced. (looks in the direction of an aircraft carrier)

ur-whale 5y ago
> Confidence can be ... enforced. Not at the scale of a planet, especially when the US is neither the economic nor the military powerhouse it once was.
- Supermancho 5y ago
  The US is still the comparative military powerhouse of the planet in every way but raw troop count. A nation can launch a nuke from a carrier, a silo, a submarine, a mobile platform. Those aren't used right now, obviously. Carrier groups are the current state-of-the-art for regional modern warfare. They aren't for invasion, but are useful for activity suppression and area control (derived from air superiority). The US has 11 nuclear powered aircraft carriers with 2 more on the way. The next largest fleet is China with 2 + 3 lesser ships they call carriers (but they are more like troop carriers, battleships, depending on how you want to classify them) with 2 more aircraft carriers on the way.
- goodpoint 5y ago
  The US has the biggest military budget by far. Also the most aggressive.
  - dragonwriter 5y ago
    > The US has the biggest army by far. No, it doesn't. Active military China and India are bigger. Active + Reserve military, China, India, Russia, Taiwan, and Vietnam are bigger. Active + Reserve military + Paramilitary, North Korea and Vietnam are bigger.
    - goodpoint 5y ago
      Sorry I had to clarify that I meant in terms of budget, not headcount.
  - ur-whale 5y ago
    > The US has the biggest army by far. Also the most aggressive. Fat lot of good it did them in Afghanistan, Iraq and Vietnam.
  - notahacker 5y ago
    They don't have the military power to occupy Europe in the event the ECB decides to offload its dollar reserves and buy oil in Euros, never mind the will to do so.
- tastyfreeze 5y ago
  The US still has a ridiculous amount of weaponry that can cause a lot of destruction even when wielded poorly.
chrisco255 5y ago
So said every empire in history that ruined themselves economically before declining militarily.
FpUser 5y ago
Really? Other than attacking some microscopic nobody what can you do to any decent size military power without getting bloody nose in return?

> Confidence can be ... enforced. Not at the scale of a planet, especially when the US is neither the economic nor the military powerhouse it once was.

Supermancho 5y ago
The US is still the comparative military powerhouse of the planet in every way but raw troop count. A nation can launch a nuke from a carrier, a silo, a submarine, a mobile platform. Those aren't used right now, obviously. Carrier groups are the current state-of-the-art for regional modern warfare. They aren't for invasion, but are useful for activity suppression and area control (derived from air superiority). The US has 11 nuclear powered aircraft carriers with 2 more on the way. The next largest fleet is China with 2 + 3 lesser ships they call carriers (but they are more like troop carriers, battleships, depending on how you want to classify them) with 2 more aircraft carriers on the way.
goodpoint 5y ago
The US has the biggest military budget by far. Also the most aggressive.
- dragonwriter 5y ago
  > The US has the biggest army by far. No, it doesn't. Active military China and India are bigger. Active + Reserve military, China, India, Russia, Taiwan, and Vietnam are bigger. Active + Reserve military + Paramilitary, North Korea and Vietnam are bigger.
  - goodpoint 5y ago
    Sorry I had to clarify that I meant in terms of budget, not headcount.
- ur-whale 5y ago
  > The US has the biggest army by far. Also the most aggressive. Fat lot of good it did them in Afghanistan, Iraq and Vietnam.
- notahacker 5y ago
  They don't have the military power to occupy Europe in the event the ECB decides to offload its dollar reserves and buy oil in Euros, never mind the will to do so.
tastyfreeze 5y ago
The US still has a ridiculous amount of weaponry that can cause a lot of destruction even when wielded poorly.

chrisco255 5y ago

So said every empire in history that ruined themselves economically before declining militarily.

FpUser 5y ago

Really? Other than attacking some microscopic nobody what can you do to any decent size military power without getting bloody nose in return?