China turning expansionist should have no effect. China will definitely not be able to conquer the Republic of Korea nor Japan nor India nor Taiwan
Utter silliness. Old fashioned conquest is the simpleminded scenario that one WOULD imagine, if one felt compelled to imagine the foe being stupid. But that's why things are hard right now. We went into Iraq imagining that they would fight us conventionally, like in 91. Dig it, the underdogs re-evaluate. LAw of nature.
It is unnecessary for China to conquer. Our worry must be that a large enough group of nations will get so pissed at us that you'll see a coalition stretching from Paris to Berlin to Moscow to Beijing, then down to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, all dedicated to bringing us down a peg.
If we were so stupid as to piss off the entire muslim world too. (Duh? Never!) you would include Indonesia, Pakistan (soon) and all the arab oil states. If we stupidly yowl "You're next!" at Iran -- as most of the right wing talkjocks are now doing, we can guarantee they'll be a part too.
Yes, that leaves a lot of the Earth we have not yet offended. We stand a chance of holding several European friends and in the Americas. Staunch Poland could keep the anti-America axis from being contiguous, though Turkey certainly has an impulse to join.
No, I don't expect the present love-us/hate-us alignment to be permanent. But the present trend, driven by incessant flag waving and utterly arrogant behavior, shows an utter unwillingness to extrapolate the danger.
The coalition I described above is totally plausible, incorporates half the people on the globe and many centers of high technology. It needn't match out economy, or even wage war. It need only have a strong desire to bring our arrogant imperium down a peg.
The arrogance you express is not a survival trait. It is tribal macho and feels good. But it is not a way for intelligent, calm leaders to behave.
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