http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/08/09/chavez.invasion.ap/index.html

[quote]Chavez called the United States the "most savage, cruel and murderous empire that has existed in the history of the world."[/quote]
Oh yeah, cause we totally are pure evil

[quote]Apart from the former Soviet Union, other host countries have included Romania, Poland, Finland, Cuba, the former East Germany and North Korea.[/quote]
Those folks sound like a swell bunch of countries hosting this World Festival of Students

Stop posting political stuff in General, there is a politics forum!

I suppose it's political, but I figured its more "the Venezuelians are nuts" than something political

[quote author=CrAz3D link=topic=12480.msg123711#msg123711 date=1123601760]
I suppose it's political, but I figured its more "the Venezuelians are nuts" than something political
[/quote]

Let's grow beards

Many other countries think so too, they just don't voice their opinion so bluntly  :P

I don't understand what you would expect a leader to say?  "No, the US will crush our forces and we will surrender our beliefs and submit to their culture"

It's called nationalism...Perhaps some of you would also find it hard to believe that in 10-20 years or so if a war were to start between America and China, the chances of winning lean toward China.  They may even be able to win if it were to begin now...

Has Venezuelea ever posed a threat to the US?  Have we posed a threat to them?  Why would they randomly say that they would be the US into the dust?

Also, China has a rather small army compared to ours...there is no doubt in my mind that they have more people, but we have the military power.  Also, their economic growth however big it may be is stil like 1% of what ours is...something like that

[quote author=CrAz3D link=topic=12480.msg123735#msg123735 date=1123621578]
Has Venezuelea ever posed a threat to the US?  Have we posed a threat to them?  Why would they randomly say that they would be the US into the dust?

Also, China has a rather small army compared to ours...there is no doubt in my mind that they have more people, but we have the military power.  Also, their economic growth however big it may be is stil like 1% of what ours is...something like that
[/quote]
Has socialism ever posed a threat to the US or vis versa?

And also, China has the largest army in the world.  The growth rate has long ago passed the US.  This is mainly due to the fact that the US markets have been flooded by cheap Chinese goods.  China is projected to have the world's strongest economy in about 20 years.

15 billion chinese armed with ninja stars > tanks, marines, fighter planes

[quote author=Topaz link=topic=12480.msg123743#msg123743 date=1123622583]
15 billion chinese armed with ninja stars > tanks, marines, fighter planes
[/quote]

Perfect example of what I just explained earlier, nationalism.  Too much of it leads to irrational thought.

Btw, ninja stars are japanese...

[quote author=Lenny link=topic=12480.msg123744#msg123744 date=1123622874]
[quote author=Topaz link=topic=12480.msg123743#msg123743 date=1123622583]
15 billion chinese armed with ninja stars > tanks, marines, fighter planes
[/quote]

Perfect example of what I just explained earlier, nationalism.  Too much of it leads to irrational thought.

Btw, ninja stars are japanese...
[/quote]Maybe they have Japanese pride...

& last I saw on the news (2 days ago) China's military isn't as big as ours...econmically they rate of growth is bigger, but the amount isn't yet.

Having a good economy allows us to have a good military. I agree that China would be able to beat us, they'll have the resources, and they'll certainly have enough people. If it comes down to it, it will be like Russia in WW2 where they just keep sending men, knowing they'll die.

Also, China has already made some threats towards our allies.

Plus, Americans are getting fatter and stuff, and Chinamen are small strong and quick.

No kidding, dumbass. I was expressing a typical stereotype of the Chinese.

By the way, I'm not biased - I happen to be of Chinese descent  :P

Stupid people fighting over stupid things. If the U.S. goes to war with China I'm moving to iago's house.

[quote author=Topaz link=topic=12480.msg123755#msg123755 date=1123626710]
No kidding, dumbass. I was expressing a typical stereotype of the Chinese.

By the way, I'm not biased - I happen to be of Chinese descent :P
[/quote]
It seemed as though you were making a sarcastic comment, otherwise your post doesn't make sense in the discussion.

I don't believe China will cause any conflicts in the near future.  Their rapid growth is mainly due to the consumption of their exports to countries such as the US.  Also, as it stands, the US has been in a staggering trade deficit because of these exports.  

Word, everybody is proChina growth cause that just means we're gonna grow more too

Anyways, stop talking about China, this is about Venezuela being a totally ignorant ass of a country.  Stick to that

Addition: This post is in response to the American vs. Chinese route that the thread has taken, and I apologies if anyone is pissed off because I have strayed from the initial topic as well.

---

Our middle class is leaving, and being taken over largely by the Chinese causing there economical growth. In the end the US will still contain a large amount of the excessively rich and the rest of us will just have to get more familiar with being poor.

To say that “Americans are getting fat and the Chinese are small quick and strong so they will win a war” sounds stupid. Our combat designated branches of military are far from fat and lazy, and are some of the most fit and trained troops in the world. Our branches such as the navy and air force may not be as fit but they have technological and fund advantages over everyone else’s. Most wars with the US contain a kill ratio of, for example, 10:1. We loose wars now because they are not conventional and over time our presidents loose public support. A war with China would be much different than the wars we have fought within the last 50 or so years, they would be more conventional, and the kill ratios would probably still be about the same. I look at it this way, if the US is to contain a large percentage of all of the richest of the rich plus a vast amount of poor, our military power will not change much, and could possibly grow. Once the middle class economical shift does change, poverty will more than likely cause the growing fat trend to drop because we will no longer be able to live so comfortable. We will have a few guys with all of the money funding an even larger group of poor people that will be willing to go to war because they have no other choice to a decent life. The poor almost completely fuel our military now, and is only dampered because there is other options to a decent life for those of us that are given easier roads.

The US will more than likely have conquered outer space by then giving the US an even larger advantage.

The US will more than likely never go to war with China one on one while the rest of the world just sits back and watches. We will break off into allegiances and it will become WWIII. In my opinion this could be the start of a unilateral government, but that is a whole other topic.

In the end I think it just comes down to the US’s tiny percentage of its population running international businesses and the balance of middle class shifting. The average American will start to suffer more, while the Chinese and such will start living better lives shifting the “Americans are getting fat and lazy” argument as well. I think things are a little more complicated then the US just falling off the face of the earth and the Chinese taking over. For all we know this economical shift is desired by the richest of the rich, but this is also another topic.

I recall reading in a war documentary that, for every 37,000 rounds expended by the US military, there was one enemy casualty.

Doesn't sound like good odds :-/

Maybe you should find that article...how many people were hit by some of those 37k bullets?

Yes, but those large amount of rounds are part of the reason our kill ratios are so different. It's called cover/supressing fire, and it is a very combat tactic. A bullet that costs a few pennies is worth someones life.

It was a cold war documentary, but I'm not sure where I read it.

Edit: I think it was some 3,700 rounds.

The ratio for snipers were infinitely better, though - 5 kills for every 4 shots fired O_O

And, back to topic:

China will take a long time to completely develop, simply because our workforce's salaries are dirt compared to Americans. An average assembly-line worker's pay numbers about 37 cents an hour. That, in itself, will take a long time for the Chinese to (truly) gain respect and global superpower status.

They may not have respect for their human rights but it has gotten better over there.  & yes, I'm sure they will be recognized as a power

They are recognized as a power, as I said earlier, economists project China to replace the US as the world's strongest economic power in the next 2 decades.

And their workforce salary is exactly what is causing its rapid growth.  US markets can't compete with the cheap labor and cheap goods imported from China.  The cost of living in America is far too high to support it.  As you can see, this problem has expanded from 'factory' labor to higher end jobs (aka offshoring).  The US is finally feeling the affects of its massive trade deficit.  IIRC, Europe has been continuing to pressure the US to continue importing from China for fear that China will turn to dump its goods in Europe.

I doubt they'll become a superpower in the next two decades, a lot of things can shift power in twenty years. That's also if the other countries sit idly by and do nothing while their trade gets sucked up by the Chinese.

As far as superpower status goes, China already has that.  But as far as the strongest superpower, the US is still in that position.  And other countries are sitting idly by while this is occuring mainly because it's only the US's problem.  As I said, Europe is still pressuring the US to take in Chinese goods. 

"As you can see, this problem has expanded from 'factory' labor to higher end jobs (aka offshoring)."
The outsourcing of programming jobs & the like is fine, it is supposed to help eliminate low end jobs from America...if we dump our crap jobs on places like China & India then we are free to have many "information age" jobs. 

But still, this isn't explaing WTF the Venezuelians are smoking.  They have very little world influence...the only thing that matters is their oil & I didn't think they had terribly much of it.