Marx Chaotix wrote:cypher1554R wrote:North Korea is just jealous.
And angry of being the only country in the world that's less advanced than its southern neighbour.
Yeah that's definitely true. Although North Korea boasts a superior military power. (lol I checked on Wikipedia =P says they're the 4th most powerful military power) South Korea beats the pants off of them for having a far more superior economy. If North Korea ever wanted a quick conquest of South Korea without any military involvement from South Korea's allies, the only way to really ever achieve this goal is probably to do a blitzkrieg. But I really do hope that everyone learns to forget about WW2 and put that aside for Japan (at least for now). Because if we leave Japan without any defenses they'll be up for a helluva mad-house of slaughter >_<; that'd just be horrifying. And I just hope that we (The U.S.) would stop dividing ourselves over stupid political crap and money. We need to become more self-sufficient from China and tap into our natural resources. That is literally like the only reason for our temporal alliances. I mean can you honestly imagine just how badly we'd be f#cked if China one day just decided to pull the plug on American and stop virtually all trades? Good god. We'd flop over like a fish and it'd take YEARS for us to even get back up on our own two feet again.
Here's a visual representation of Both the united states against China through just about everything (through both economy population etc...)
http://www.mint.com/blog/finance-core/c ... omparison/
...OMG there is no way that could be true....red is china and whitish grey is the United States. That is just....scary like seriously
Actually, to correct your point, North Korea is said to have the 4th largest available
standing army (whether that's true or not, or whether that includes available reserve forces, I don't know). That just means that it can call a lot of people when it needs them. That's scary in the case of a land war in Korea, but keep in mind that their infrastructure can't support itself as it is. They rely on China for massive aid (although, China could very well supply the country with everything it needs in the event of an emergency). They are definitely not the 4th most powerful though - not by a long shot. South Korea has, overall, a more capable military than they do. The scary part really is if a blitzkrieg type attack were carried out where the South Koreans are overwhelmed by superior numbers before they get a chance to respond (even if the South Koreans have far better infrastructure and mobility).
Also, I'm surprised that seeing that visual representation surprises you so much. That seems about spot on with what I already knew between the two countries. Maybe it's because I have an external perspective, but most of that stuff has been pretty clear for awhile. China has a far larger population, larger standing army, a massive trade surplus (with the US having a massive trade deficit), and in general their infrastructure is quickly catching up the US. Also of interest, and not shown there, is that China has ~90% of the world's discovered deposits of rare earth minerals that are essential for a lot of interesting technology (like superconducting materials). They don't have the same oil reserves as the US (which is part of why they've tried to establish positive relations with several middle eastern countries and OPEC), but both countries have a hell of a lot of coal.
There's a lot of interesting stuff in there, but it shouldn't be that surprising. Or perhaps I'm being too naive regarding US media coverage and openness of information.
houston wrote:I share your fears; I just hope that there is nothing Julian Assange is in possession off that could make matters worse!
I have mixed opinions about what he did. In some ways, I think he should be congratulated. There's too strong a tendency to lock information away or keep it in the hands of a few, trusting them with information that could have influence over the fate of many, when there a plethora of solutions available to make use of that information. However, I think that his move was stupid politically - it didn't prove any sort of invaluable lesson in the manner in which it was released - and there are many documents which compromise innocents in active war zones. A much better approach would be to use it as a tool to rectify any injustices he saw in the documents in a targeted manner, and release that which he thought necessary.
That's basically saying that I don't think all the information should be released, but it's more for practical political (strategic) reasons. Information like that will always be available if someone with the know-how and desire wants it. We live in too connected of a world for that not to be the case. Really, that makes it more a tool than anything - and I think that he used it wrong. The world doesn't need someone to leak the names of innocents in a war zone (along with tons of other information - that being a relatively minor part), and to see someone responsible for opening the flow of information be the attack of a smear campaign. His information was poorly targeted, and if anything, I see the results as being discouraging for anyone who'd consider questioning secrecy.
I honestly believe that if there's going to be a major conflict, it's going to first be waged on the information/technology front. Major infrastructure like the power grid, finance, and military structures will be attacked and there will potentially be a black out. If Wall Street was taken down, the US economy would crumble. I'm going to ask an honest question. Where do you think the best response would come from in a situation like that? I honestly don't think that it would come from any sort of central point, because no central point could coordinate actions against such an attack. You'd need a distributed and decentralized command structure and infrastructure (unlike the US' highly centralized command structure and infrastructure). The US, far more than any other nation on the planet, has the ability to mobilize itself rapidly to nearly any hotspot with relatively large-scale support. No other nation can claim that (for the time being). However, do you think that would be possible if major communication networks and infrastructure started failing? Not a chance.
I don't entirely agree with the total centralization of any process or decision making, partially because it's incredibly vulnerable to attack. I feel the same way about information. No one should hold the only key to vital information, particularly if they're a potential target. People, as a collective, may act as unruly mobs, and information may be used with malicious intent, but I think it's far too easy to be willing to lock up important information due to what may be considered a justified cause at the time.
What do you guys think? I would've tried to find more articles only I'm in class right now so I can't exactly find any more juicy articles. If anyone can find any more related to this discussion please feel free to post.
If war does ever occur they'll have to relocate. lol
lol
And I'm aware that China is doing tremendously well financially considering the fact that nearly everyone's main supplier of goods and imports are straight from the Chinese shores. It seems like the only thing we've been able to boast is our military power which saddens me really =/ the only thing we're good at is clobbering the hell out of our enemies.