My point is that they don't have the capability. Marching to the Caspian Sea is the best they might pull off. They have to go around the Hindu Kush and they can be held at the Caucasus. We still control the oceans and can move oil and forces by sea. We can keep the Chinese out of the Middle East. They have no hope of reaching the Mediterranean.
It's China who is posturing for the dollar to be removed because they are afraid of not getting their money back with inflation being a real possibility right now. The problem with their push is they are being accused of manipulating their own currency right now. It's their govt yelling at ours to stop all the debt escalation because it will lead to devaluation of the money they receive as payment on our debt and it could lead to them losing money (not by number but by valuation) if inflation skyrockets.
I say we offer them california and throw in new york while we're at it. Eventually all the bleeding hearts will cause their country to go to ***** they they are doing to ours.
I don't think we are going to go to war with the people who own us financially, now eventually they may get pissed up and want to bitch slap us because we don't pay them back, but hell, i would think that letting them sell their crappy products in our country would suffice.
China's entire economy and its superpower aspirations are based on Americans being able to buy the crap they make. They won't start a shootign war they can't win, nor will they start an economic war they can only lose.
would they need to? wouldnt controlling the stans and iran be enough? that two of the top ten proven reserves.
The 'stans are on the steppes, a vast plain that is easy to invade. Iran is another matter altogether. It is a mountainous country protected from the north by the chain of the Causasus, Elburz, and Kopel mountains that adjoin the Hindu Kush. The Russians have coveted Persia's warm-water ports for 300 years and never have been able to take them for this reason. The place is easily defendable from the north. By the time China got to Iran, Iran would have garnered Western support to hold the mountains. We are not going to allow China to cross the mountains Honestly China has zero historical traditions for foreign wars. The built a huge wall to keep Mongolians out, when they outnumbered them by a huge factor. They could have marched on Mongolia and conquered it. Instead the mongolians went over the wall and conquered China. The Chinese have never been good soldiers, despite Sun Tsu. Notwithstanding their posturing, I think they have no territorial ambitions beyond China. As they grow richer and Russia grows poorer, they will be increasingly worried about Russian aggression. Fortunately Russia has no tradition of taking war far beyond Russia, either.
