<story><title>Reasons to Fear Another ‘Great War’</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-11-11/100-years-after-world-war-i-there-s-reason-to-fear?srnd=premium-europe</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>AcerbicZero</author><text>A modern &amp;quot;great war&amp;quot; would require countries of relatively equal military industrial power, so either it would be a great war without the US involved, i.e. China&amp;#x2F;India, Russia&amp;#x2F;China (with caveats), etc. In those situations the countries may temporarily forgo the use of nuclear weapons, at least until one side is pressed beyond the point of rational response.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;d also suggest the last time countries were so dominant in certain military areas, they didn&amp;#x27;t overlap as much as they do today, so open conflict was easier to maintain. In the early 1800&amp;#x27;s France was the undisputed world leader when it came to land based combat, while the British maintained a serious advantage at sea. Today, the US is undisputed in all 3 categories, land, air, sea, and a 4th if you count space. If another country were able to take a commanding lead in at least 1 of those areas, perhaps we could see a high intensity conflict involving the US, however until that happens, there isn&amp;#x27;t much of a point.&lt;p&gt;Minor Edit: This isn&amp;#x27;t intended as support of the current situation.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>us-throw1</author><text>Are you really sure that the US is undisputed in those 4 categories? A list of obvious weaknesses:&lt;p&gt;* The US economy and industrial power is dependent on IT and brittle supply chains. Nobody knows how much the cyber infrastructure holding this up is already compromised.&lt;p&gt;* Russian S-400s can already deny air superiority to Israeli planes, which are not far behind US planes.&lt;p&gt;* How does the US have space superiority when there is no ASAT defense besides MAD?&lt;p&gt;* The US has not been able to suppress a rebellion in Afghanistan with trillions of dollars and 17 years. Maybe in an actual war their hands would be untied, so this isn&amp;#x27;t the best point.&lt;p&gt;* The US Navy loses war-games to swarm attacks and is just now a decade later deploying solutions to this. When was the last time US ships actually had to fight? Vietnam?&lt;p&gt;* The US has increasing ethnic and social conflicts, not to mention the potential fifth column of residents with ties to enemy powers.&lt;p&gt;* Barely half of US fighter planes are combat ready at any given moment. The trillion dollar F-35 had to be flown with VFR the first time it crossed the IDL. Who knows what else is lurking in that software?</text></comment>
<story><title>Reasons to Fear Another ‘Great War’</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-11-11/100-years-after-world-war-i-there-s-reason-to-fear?srnd=premium-europe</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>AcerbicZero</author><text>A modern &amp;quot;great war&amp;quot; would require countries of relatively equal military industrial power, so either it would be a great war without the US involved, i.e. China&amp;#x2F;India, Russia&amp;#x2F;China (with caveats), etc. In those situations the countries may temporarily forgo the use of nuclear weapons, at least until one side is pressed beyond the point of rational response.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;d also suggest the last time countries were so dominant in certain military areas, they didn&amp;#x27;t overlap as much as they do today, so open conflict was easier to maintain. In the early 1800&amp;#x27;s France was the undisputed world leader when it came to land based combat, while the British maintained a serious advantage at sea. Today, the US is undisputed in all 3 categories, land, air, sea, and a 4th if you count space. If another country were able to take a commanding lead in at least 1 of those areas, perhaps we could see a high intensity conflict involving the US, however until that happens, there isn&amp;#x27;t much of a point.&lt;p&gt;Minor Edit: This isn&amp;#x27;t intended as support of the current situation.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>aqme28</author><text>I wonder if cybersecurity could be counted as a 5th area, and if so, how far behind the US is.</text></comment>