Who Would Win This War: America vs. The Entire World

If we had to depend of the incompetence of the conservative right wi ngers like Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Gonzales, heck of a job Brownie etc. we'd lose before it started.

The U.S. stands no chance on the offensive. Other empires have tried to take over the world through warfare. Those who got most of a continent have their own chapters in history books. 6 continents? No chance.

However, given modern conditions, I think there are at least 2 ways the U.S. could do an unprecedented amount of damage without nuclear weapons.

I’m guessing the U.S. could ruin many nations (themselves in the process) and force others into devastating depressions through economic strong-arming. I mean, if the U.S. suddenly stops trading what happens across the globe? Does the economy of the entire world collapse?

The U.S. could secretly vaccinate their entire population and suddenly unleash an epidemic of smallpox or some other virus. That tactic could severely weaken much of the world. Even if the U.S went offensive against the rest of the world dealing with an epidemic, I still think the U.S. loses badly.

Now, on the defensive I think the rest of the world stands little chance. It’s very difficult to invade a motivated nation even if they’ve got fewer troops and inferior technology (U.S. in Vietnam, USSR in Afghanistan, etc.). Here is how I think it plays out with the globe on offense. The U.S. threatens its step-children, Canada and Mexico, into allying so they’ve got oil and barriers with extreme conditions on land borders. Detroit returns to manufacturing glory and provides supplies. At that point, I’d imagine the U.S. Navy and Air Force could dominate the Oceans and Gulf of Mexico, bottle up the Bering Straight and control the Panama Canal in order to prevent most of the world from ever reaching U.S. soil.

Judging by your post it sounds like we are too late. The USA has already been occupied by pretentious, ignorant, ethno-centric idiots!

obviouser wrote:

Judging by your post it sounds like we are too late. The USA has already been occupied by pretentious, ignorant, ethno-centric idiots!

Dude, check out naval statistics around the world.

The only reason international shipping is remotely feasible is the U.S. navy has ironclad control over the world's oceans, save for certain bodies of water that are strewn with islands and the coast of Somalia.

You can't invade a country if you can't reach its shores, and the US Navy can effectively prevent any ships from going anywhere if they so choose.

i like the idea of secretly vaccinating our citizens and whipping out smallpox or something of the sort. maybe create a new virus without current vaccines so no one else can prevent it

I like how the issue of natural resources is quietly ignored. That, and the fact that most of the "companies" which we would need to use to mobilize the military em masse aren't just American anymore. They're international. And they would bet against us. They would stand to make MUCH more money.

dude..we're talking about every single navy in the world...the US would be highly unlikely to survive more than a month, it would involve heavy losses on both sides for sure and in any case the US has land borders with the rest of the world so it's a moot point..

liff wrote:

dude..we're talking about every single navy in the world...the US would be highly unlikely to survive more than a month, it would involve heavy losses on both sides for sure and in any case the US has land borders with the rest of the world so it's a moot point..

Yea, and the U.S. Navy, by gross tonnage, is larger than the next 17 combined. I don't know who has the 19th most powerful Navy in the world, but I'm guessing its not all that fearsome.

It has 80 nuclear subs, which eliminates the fuel problem because the nuclear fuel lasts over 30 years, and allows the U.S. to cover every inch of the globe. Each sub alone can cover thousands of square miles with ballistic missiles, or effectively prevent any ships from reaching U.S. shores.

Go on and look up stats on the rest of the U.S. naval fleet. If you doubt that it controls the world's oceans single-handedly, then there is no hope for you.

And I'm sure an overland invasion through Canada or Mexico is feasible. The troops have to get there somehow, and its not gonna be by ship or plane, so I guess that will have to wait until the Bering ice-bridge reforms.

The U.S. can't win an offensive war, but it can't lose a defensive one either.

three words:No energy independence

Air force and navy are irrelevant if we're talking about invading first world nations. ICBMs can reach any city in the US, and we have no way to stop it short of a preemptive strike on all missile silos. The ICBMs can be armed with regular bombs, thus not violating the nuke rule.

But we'd have to be retarded to get into a situation where the entire world attacks us. We could easily take on south america at first, to give us access to natural resources like oil. After we've pacified South America (if we even can), we take Australia. Who really cares about Australia? No one, that's who. From Australia, we can launch strategic attacks on Japan, and take the island easily since they have no army. Japan gives us a base from which to invade China, possibly after firebombing the seats of government. We bomb russia and don't bother occupying it. Now that we control Asia and South America, Europe is easy. We have cut off most of their oil supplies and other important resources.

Eastern Europe would be easy, and if we can take Germany we can easily take France, Italy, and Spain. From their, we besiege Britain, until finally they are forced to surrender.

In a conventional war, the US stands no chance period. Neither offensive nor defensive. There are simply too many other nations out there. Too many people. Too many ships, planes, tanks, etc. Hell we can't even secure our borders from illegal aliens. You think we're going to be able to stop the rest of the WORLD trying to get in?

You are guessing wrong. "Economic strong arming" only works when multiple nations cooperate.

No it does not. It might go through a recession though

Ah! Secretly? Shhhh! Don't tell anyone, you 265 million people! No doubt they can all keep a secret

And other nations could do this to the US as well. Sorry, we still lose

Those were cases of ONE large country vs one small country. This is a case of the entire WORLD (roughly 6 BILLION people vs the US.

The step children say no because they know the US cannot possibly afford to attack them with the rest of the world bearing down on it.

This has got to be the most ridiculous scenario I've ever heard.

Tell me, where does the nation get its oil and gasoline while all this is going on?

isn't america like 0 fer whatever in wars against canada? i think they've got history on their side

They've been fighting the Taliban for 7 years AND THE TALIBAN IS WINNING. Any other questions?

i think to "secretly" vaccinate our population, we would not be able to tell anyone what they are being vaccinated against. warn against a tuberculosis epidemic or something, but vaccinate for smallpox, then let it go. it is true that we could not count on the population being quiet about it.

what about canada? wrote:

isn't america like 0 fer whatever in wars against canada? i think they've got history on their side

The US has never fought a war with Canada. They fought 2 with Britain when it controlled Canada with 1 win and 1 draw.

Offensive:

If we have first strike, then I think it's possible. We have strategically located military bases and resources all over the world. With first strike advantage, we can quickly take out strategic infrastructure and military facilities before the World could mobilize. See below:

http://www.oilempire.us/graphics/US-military-bases-2001-03.jpg

We than use are naval power to take out all other naval forces. Once we control the seas, we control the world (in a sense we already do). As many posters above have said, our navy is ridonculous! Here is a comparison of the aircraft carriers alone:

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/carriers.gif

The trick is to mainly focus on naval and air power. If it comes down to ground based warfare, then we are at a severe disadvantage:

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/active-force.htm

This only works for taking out the World's military forces, in that sense we win, but if we are trying to occupy, then there is no way that is happening. Also, if we don't have the first strike advantage, then we're probably done as well.

Defensive:

I think we'd do all right for awhile, again our naval forces would prevent any invasion of the east or west coast. And if we fortify the north and south borders or just take out the entire North America and fortify it, I think we could last 5-10 years, but eventually we'd run out resources and we'd be screwed.

hahahahhuhu wrote:

three words:No energy independence

The biggest exporter of oil to the US is Canada. The third biggest is Mexico. It wouldn't take much effort for the US to overrun their oil fields should they attack us. At that point the US would have enough oil to feed the American military.

Blowing Rock Master wrote:

The biggest exporter of oil to the US is Canada. The third biggest is Mexico. It wouldn't take much effort for the US to overrun their oil fields should they attack us. At that point the US would have enough oil to feed the American military.

Yes, it would most definitely take "much effort". Particularly when Canada and Mexico would have the military support of the rest of the planet.

But that point is moot. You don't need to stop them from taking over the oil fields. You merely need to prevent them from getting the oil out of it or converting it to something useful. A few well placed bombs or missiles in the fields (and especially in refineries) will do the trick. Look at what happened when one hurricane (Katrina) went through the Carribean. Refineries are big fat soft targets.

As has been pointed out by several posters the US Navy dominates those of the rest of the world. It doesn't matter how many Chinese or Russians there are, they would never set foot on our shores.

Several posters have stated that the US doesn't have the manufacturing base to maintain our military. Just where do you think our guns, tanks, planes, and ships are built? China? They're built here! The US doesn't farm this stuff out. In fact a large percentage of the world's armies are outfitted with American manufactured weapons. They'd be the ones who'd get screwed in a US vs. the world war.

There is no way the US would lose a defensive war. There's also no way the US could take over the rest of the world in an offensive war. It just too big to occupy and pacify.

I can't believe I just wasted 10 minutes on this.