Could America have taken over the World after World War 2? Should they have?

[mountaindewslave]

Aeolus451 said:

veritaz said:

[e-mail] said:

bouzane said:
It's doubtful that America could have defeated the Soviet Union after WWII let alone the entire world. Additionally, it would have been impossible to retain the new territory. Conquering the planet through force can never be achieved, hence why it has never happened.

Agreed. And in fairness, America couldn't even conquer a handful of small 3rd world countries in the last few years.

You honestly believe they are trying to conquer those countries? The death toll in the middle east is super 1 sided. I see a lot of people underestimating the U.S military right now. We have by far the best military currently and could take out any country still with the amount of firepower and advanced technology we have. It's not like all that money that we spend on the military doesn't do anything. We still spend the most out of any other country by far.

We owe china nearly 1 trillion US dollars and it's growing. They are the #1 country we borrow money from. Our 2011 military budget was 664 billion. Overall, we owe around 3 trillion in foreign debt. We couldn't afford to wage war unless we borrow money or cancel some welfare checks.

the USA debt is actually almost equally owed to China AND Japan, something people often conveniently forget to mention. only about 10 % of their debt has been borrowed from China and 10% from Japan. the vast majority of the USA debt is actually internal, pulled from the country's own social security system. essentially the USA for the most part is not in debt in the traditional sense. They have in a way axed and damaged internal programs in the future, but do not in fact owe other countries that much

again something likle 80% of the USA debt is internal, borrowed from their own programs

anyone claiming that China or the like could stronghand the USA economy by requesting their money back is delusional because A: it's really not that much (again 10% or so of debt) and B: the Chinese economy relies almost entirely on imports sent to the USA

I think its also important to bear in mind that the USA GDP is large enough that if legislation was passed to dramatically change government programs, the debt could be dealt with very effectively in a 5-10 year plan. of course thats easier said than done, but few countries in the world are capable of fixing their own problems like the USA potentially can

 

The USA spends something along the lines of as much as the next 10 countries combined on their military

The USA is far more capable in today's world of complete domination, especially with so many strategic bases in virtually every democratic country on the planet. but whats the point of world domination if it means the destruction of the planet as a whole? also what's the point of it if it wouldn't last? because even if it is theoretically possible due to the country's large military (well really large technology advantage rather than numbers), it would be nigh impossible to maintain and would result in huge smoke clouds covering the sky and neverending winters where everyone would die

 

I do disagree with the OP though- right after WW2 the USA still would not have been big enough or really capable of world domination. Today I could somewhat imagine it though. I think we can all agree that the USA is somewhat imperialistic as it is; they are the only country on the planet that has hundreds or thousands of strategic bases with missles and ships and air force components practically eveywhere geographically