What would happen if China attacked the US (seriously)?

[veggieboy]

I was looking up info about their military and they currently have enough people available to be in their military (like a Billion or so) to outnumber the size of our country?! Lets say in 30 years, they build their technological power and have to or three billion available and they decide they don't like us and attack us?!

How would this play out?

[yerkyerk]

Ehr - in a conventional war, the US would probably already be made China's *****.

However, nukes (or other weapons of mass destruction) change the playing ground of the generals. You can't invade other countries anymore, with the threat of having a nuke held above your head. If there's a war, we might all be part of it, probably none for the better. The nice thing of weapons of mass destruction is that they can 'force' peace. The not so nice thing is that they're bound to cause more damage than they ever prevented.

[Violos]

Fallout 3 is what would happen. At least it happened there, and it's not pretty.

That's why, hopefully, there isn't going to be such a war. The real war, I guess, will be an economic one.

[Raven.rpg]

Don"t care
I am in europe

You can all die

[yerkyerk]

Heh, and you really expect Europe not to be involved in it?

[veggieboy]

Exactly. I think that another war between "two big players" would bring the world to its knees. I mean, not sound like a drone, but look at how advanced we have become since WWII.

Could you imagine if China, the most populous country (can't think of anything else at the moment) in the world, and United States, a major powerhouse/domineering EMPIRE were to have a war?

That would be insane.

And which countries in Europe would side with us if they did join? Would Japan and Russia jump on the bandwagon...as well as the Middle East?!

Aren't we in debt to China (like almost a TRILLION dollars?)

[yerkyerk]

Well, debts hold little value in a war... as for which countries would join, that depends on the cause I guess. I think they'll try and remain as neutral as they can, unless there's a clear act of aggression from one side. Switzerland will definetely remain neutral

War between two of the bigger world powers will result in a stalemate.

[fathersquid]

Here's perhaps an interesting thought for you all... A new book recently released (sometime this year) puts forth the theory that there will be a major war within the next three decades with the driving cause being climate change.

Already countries like India, China, Pakistan, etc. are all experiencing water shortages due to the facts that the major source for their water is melting runoff from the glaciers which are retreating at never before seen rates due to global warming. Mount Kilimanjaro is expected to lose its glaciers within twenty years, and by the same time, it is projected that 2/3 of the necessary fresh water for the aforementioned countries may be depleted. Where do these people get the necessary water? They can't buy it. They have no fresh water sources that will not have been used - worldwide, only 3% of the water on the globe is fresh water, and 2/3 of that is frozen in ice - mostly in Antarctica. The author Dyer, puts forward that this water shortage will lead to attacks between these countries as they try and secure the necessary water and thus food supply for their growing populations (China and India both have over a billion people and are steadily increasing - projected estimates put India at losing over 25% of its food supply with Pakistan losing as much as 50%). Remember that all these countries are nuclear powers. He also puts forward the notion that China will push into Russian territory such as Siberia and Mongolia which could totally change relations between those superpowers.
Another scenario he puts forth is if Mexico experiences vast climate changes. What happens to the US-Mexican border? Already there are hundreds of immigrants crossing illegally and Mexico has some of the largest cities in the world - will this number become a flood? Will the border have to be defended by soldiers with a will to kill humans trying to enter what they perceive to be a better country? How would the American public look at this?

Anyway - the book is called Climate Wars - the author is Gwynne Dyer. It is considered to be a pivotal non-fiction work in some circles for the year.

As Monty Python says, "The world today seems absolutely crackers..."

[Conker411]

Nukes aside. America and China have the the top two militarizes in the world, We, America, have them beat in technology, and the got us in shear size. I believe China's military is bullshit because their "massive" army is filled with under geared, unfed, poorly trained peasants. The U.S. would bombard China and they would just sit there taking it to the face like a porn star. Now, lets say Russia joined the Chinese, that might be different. If that were to happen America would be counting on its European friends to help us out. In all I believe America would be alright and overpower China regardless their size, we've got nothing to worry about...except nukes.
In college one of my professor told us that because of our debt to China, that they could tell us to change the name of our country and we would have to. I stood up and said " If China did that then we would bombard their country and put them in a time out." America has the most powerful military in the history of man. No other country has the balls to say that because we've beaten them at one point in time. America's military cannot be beaten by a single country.

[Buy4now]

Do you ever wonder what was going through the minds of the Romans when the Roman Empire was at its peak? They had the greatest military presence of their time. They were living large with gladitorial events, orgies, and "all roads led to Rome". They built a wall to keep the scottish folk at bay, but I'm sure they bragged about being able to beat any standing army at the time. They had already done so in most cases. So why is it that the only place we can find the Roman Empire is in the history books? Their hubris must have been at epic proportions when they started their decent into oblivion.

I'm not saying we (I'm an American, btw) are doomed to fail like the Roman Empire. But we do need to wake up and start holding ourselves accountable for our excessive lifestyle. Unfortunately, the American Dream can be defined to a large extent by the phrase "I got mine, you get yours." The selfless extremes of Communism have failed around the world because they stiffled the human spirit of wanting to succeed and get ahead by innovating and striving for excellence. The selfish extremes of Capitalism could possibly fail around the world because they indulge the human spirit to the extremes of greed and entitlement.

The title of this thread caught my eye -- "What would happen if China attacked the US (seriously)?" I guess we have to define what we mean by "attacked". I don't think we are playing a game of Risk (the old board game) where armies attack each other over territories. Instead, I think we are playing a game of worldwide Monopoly where properties are bought and rent is charged. We are under "attack" as you read this. America is in the process of mortgaging its properties (Boardwalk and Park Place) to pay for the Community Chest card it just got that said "Subprime lending problem, pay banks 4 trillion dollars" while Germany is landing on Greece and says "I think I'll buy it." The next roll will put the German game piece on Spain and then Portugal for a nice little monopoly. But the real cheesecake is all the way on the other side of the board and the China game piece will be coming up on it sooner than we think.... America. The total economy of Greece is only the size of Massachusetts and America piles on debt to the tune of 1.5 trillion of deficits per year. We've amassed as much debt in the last 7 years than we did in our entire existance before that. It's ironic that we could be beaten at a game where we set the rules and got a head start to boot. Germany tried to take over Europe twice last century.... third time could be the charm. Many variables could change the dynamic:

1) America could start paying off its debt (yeah I know, it's funny, but I had to mention it)
2) America could start acquiring properties of its own. Iraq is a good start, but I'm afraid that's going to prove a futile move when oil is rendered obsolete as a fuel source down the road.
3) A war could break out between the European Common Market countries when economies start to crumble and America could be asked to step in and help (sounds like another WWII scenario).
4) The climate war mentioned above by Fathersquid could put the whole monopoly board in flux.

America's hubris cannot be beaten by a single country.... well, at least not one that exists today