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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group
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To: Bilow who wrote (27758)4/29/2002 7:24:48 PM
From: TimF  Read Replies (1) of 281500
 
Instead of "power" the word you're looking for is "expenditures"

No Carl, power was the word I am looking for. Of course its hard to boil that down to a percentage because there are different types of power and different amounts of power in different areas.

It costs the US hundreds of thousands of dollars to destroy a pick-up truck that costs $1500 with four guys in it with another $1000 worth of rifles and maybe $2000 worth of RPGs. So while we have maybe 40% of the world's expenditure in weapons, in terms of warfare our capability is a lot lower. Maybe 5 or 10%. That's the largest chunk of power in the world, but it is not overwhelming.

If we have 5 or 10% of the world's power what countries amounting to say 30% of the world's power could easily defeat us?

We have about 5% of the world population, in your opinion does our technology and wealth gain us nothing?

Of course its not a simple comparison of numbers. Having perhaps 35% of the world's military power doesn't mean we can automatically easily dispatch a coalition with 20% or even a force with less then 5% when conditions are unvfavorable and your enemy is determined (see Vietnam).

Excuses are only legitimate to the extent that you can sell them overseas.

I disagree. However I might say that excuses are only useful to the extent that you can sell them overseas (and to Americans).

Tim
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