[Grizzly]

Missuse of power? Hell, we can write a whole library of big fat tomes about that.

To say it BSG style:

It has happened before, and it will happen again.

[m]

You are right, that does sound terrible.  Name one reason that the US didn't conquer the world in 1945.  I'm waiting.

You weren't crazy enough to try somethings as stupid like that?

It wouldn't have been stupid; we had the Bomb; Russia, Europe and Japan (the only powerful resistance we would have had) were devastated by WWII; and all it would take is us dropping a few more nukes and the world would have surrendered... we would have become an American Empire.

Also; once we got into the cities; it would have been a piece of cake to conquer them, due to the fact that THE CIVILIANS WEREN'T ARMED!!! (except for the Swiss; Even Hitler couldn't get them, due to... mandatory military service and gun ownership.

Check this out...

Tojo once said that the reason Japan never invaded the mainland of the United States was because "there would be a rifle behind every blade of grass" ...

[Grizzly]

Act

You are right, that does sound terrible.  Name one reason that the US didn't conquer the world in 1945.  I'm waiting.

You weren't crazy enough to try somethings as stupid like that?

It wouldn't have been stupid; we had the Bomb; Russia, Europe and Japan (the only powerful resistance we would have had) were devastated by WWII; and all it would take is us dropping a few more nukes and the world would have surrendered... we would have become an American Empire.

Also; once we got into the cities; it would have been a piece of cake to conquer them, due to the fact that THE CIVILIANS WEREN'T ARMED!!! (except for the Swiss; Even Hitler couldn't get them, due to... mandatory military service and gun ownership.

Check this out...

Tojo once said that the reason Japan never invaded the mainland of the United States was because "there would be a rifle behind every blade of grass" ...

Actually, it is a stupid thing to do. Even now, it is impossible to control an country as large as the world.

[Mobius]

Also; once we got into the cities; it would have been a piece of cake to conquer them, due to the fact that THE CIVILIANS WEREN'T ARMED!!!

Wrong. Northern regions of Italy were full of weapons used by citizens to repel the German invasion force(and those citizens kept the weapons with them for decades). Actually, Italy was known to be one of the most violent post-WWII countries. There have been plenties of homicides when the civil war seemed imminent.

And they were expert in guerrilla tactics.


Anyways, the USA "conquered" the world after WWII. They prepared armies of counter-insurgency soldiers. I don't know what happened in other European countries, but I know that the USA were ready to "start" a civil war here in case the communits took power. The main association was called "Gladio", Italian for "Gladius", and was mostly composed by Italians.

American Generals never talk about it. An Italian interiewer, during a show, asked an highly ranked member of the American army a few questions about Gladio. That guy escaped.

The USA already rule over the world.

[TrashMan]

USA ruling the worl...LOL....you cna't keep Iraw or Afganistan under control, let alone the world!

I asked you - what would the USA do if suddenly all of Canadian and Mexican forces swarmed into the USA (followed by every other country in the world)

Once they cross the border they are in your territory..would you nuke em? Would you have enough nukes to bomb the whole border line? If they're fast enough they can even push deep in your territory. What then? And by the time your'e done dealing with those two armies, the rest of the world would be at your doorstep.

[Mobius]

USA ruling the worl...LOL....you cna't keep Iraw or Afganistan under control, let alone the world!

Don't confuse guerrilla with war. These two countries are supposed to be under control. But you obviously can't eliminate all fanatics as they conduct normal lives and can be mistaken for civilians.

I asked you - what would the USA do if suddenly all of Canadian and Mexican forces swarmed into the USA (followed by every other country in the world)

This is not going to happen. Canadian forces invading the USA?!?

[Polpolion]

I am getting quite sick of this America bashing.

[Maxwell]

The US has not put the full brunt of its military force to action since the civil war era.
After WW2 the majority of their pacific fleet was in tip top shape and its Europe based military was the only self sufficient force still standing. They made so many spare boats, aircraft, trucks and engine parts that they supplied private industry and foreign military forces for decades afterwards. Much of the gear it uses today is verging on 50 years old because they've been working off of WW2 stock the whole time.
As far as manpower, its a nation of over 300 million now.  I doubt it would be much trouble to have filled all those pre-made uniforms at any point.
If the goal of Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf war, or a hypothetical post WW2 conflict was to crush all opposition and make the world ready for an American empire then there is nothing logistically in the way of that plan.

Then theres the nuke advantage to consider.

Simple fact is that without an Emperor you can't have an Empire, and no one in the US is suggesting that they declare Bush president for life or anything of that nature (not forgetting the detail that Roosevelt (the president who ordered up the A-bombs) actually served more than two terms and his immediate successors could have twisted the presidency to be a de'facto dictatorship).

Yea Bush is not that great in the polls but... lets get keep some perspective here. 

[Windrunner]

The funny thing about that was after the guy had killed himself, armed cops and SWAT teams were still showing up.


Americans are friggin stupid.

I don't want to see anymore of these posts VC. If you don't have anything smart to contribute with then do not write at all.

[Mobius]

Then theres the nuke advantage to consider.

Three cheers for Enrico Fermi

The US has not put the full brunt of its military force to action since the civil war era.
After WW2 the majority of their pacific fleet was in tip top shape and its Europe based military was the only self sufficient force still standing.

Of course. They have never been attacked!

I know of two attempts. One "failed", the other never occurred.

1) Attack from Japan, using balloons loaded with bombs. Thanks to the wind, they could reach the USA. They inflicted minor damage(as far as I know, the only victims were a cow and a farmer);
2) Attack from Italy, probably the most ferocious one. A submarine would have attacked New York directly, devastating the port. In order to do this, a German submarine tanker was necessary. The Germans didn't put any of their submaries available so the attack has been delayed...forever. The Fascists also planned to "force" an insurgency in Little Italy;

They made so many spare boats, aircraft, trucks and engine parts that they supplied private industry and foreign military forces for decades afterwards. Much of the gear it uses today is verging on 50 years old because they've been working off of WW2 stock the whole time.

They did the right thing with the so called Marshal Plan, but remember that one of their most important objectives was to keep the hands of the Communist Russia far away from Europe...

[TrashMan]

I know of two attempts. One "failed", the other never occurred.

1) Attack from Japan, using balloons loaded with bombs. Thanks to the wind, they could reach the USA. They inflicted minor damage(as far as I know, the only victims were a cow and a farmer);

It was far more sucesfull than anyone though. Great fires have been ravaging the US. If Japan had continued it would have chrushed the US internally.

The US has not put the full brunt of its military force to action since the civil war era.
After WW2 the majority of their pacific fleet was in tip top shape and its Europe based military was the only self sufficient force still standing. They made so many spare boats, aircraft, trucks and engine parts that they supplied private industry and foreign military forces for decades afterwards. Much of the gear it uses today is verging on 50 years old because they've been working off of WW2 stock the whole time.
As far as manpower, its a nation of over 300 million now.  I doubt it would be much trouble to have filled all those pre-made uniforms at any point.
If the goal of Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf war, or a hypothetical post WW2 conflict was to crush all opposition and make the world ready for an American empire then there is nothing logistically in the way of that plan.

LOL...300 million now, and even that is not that much. We're talking after WW2. How many soldiers then? How many that's actually combat capable?

Now how many soldiers can the countries closest to US muster? Far more than that. Nukes? You didn't have nearly enough nukes to kill off 5 billion people....not even a fraction of it. If the world turned on you back then they would swarm you and kill you off...one by one..like ants.

[Mobius]

It was far more sucesfull than anyone though. Great fires have been ravaging the US. If Japan had continued it would have chrushed the US internally.

But they would have needed plenties of baloons. I think that the Italian attack would have been succesful, expecially with a nuclear bomb. Enrico Fermi went away and Ettore Maiorana disappeared(his jamming device would have been useful).

[jr2]

World pop in 1950 was 2,556,000,053

US pop in 1945 was 139,928,165, in 1950 was 152,271,417

EDIT: Total US military personnel serving in WWII: 32,225,132
          Total US military deaths in WWII: 810,798

Sources:

http://www.infoplease.com/year/1945.html
http://www.infoplease.com/year/1950.html
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0762181.html
http://siadapp.dmdc.osd.mil/personnel/CASUALTY/WCPRINCIPAL.pdf

[Mobius]

US population = mish mesh of Italians, Germans, English, etc etc

How can they attack the countries of their ancestors?

[jr2]

The same way they did in WWII, silly ... except, you'd need about 20 years of Hitler-style lies and brainwashing to make them believe that the rest of the world was out to get them. 

The state must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people. As long as the government is perceived as working for the benefit of the children, the people will happily endure almost any curtailment of liberty and almost any deprivation. If you tell a lie long enough, loud enough and often enough the people will believe it. People are more likely to believe a big lie than a small one!

[Mobius]

They didn't love the idea.

Hitler was the Master of Lies.

[Maxwell]

Now how many soldiers can the countries closest to US muster? Far more than that. Nukes? You didn't have nearly enough nukes to kill off 5 billion people....not even a fraction of it. If the world turned on you back then they would swarm you and kill you off...one by one..like ants.

Why eradicate all life in one day when you can hit a few facilities and starve half the planet to death over the next month.

Before the 40's were out the US had enough nukes and  conventional weapons with the long range aircraft needed to take out almost every major port around the globe. It also had an uncontested navy and land army of massive scale.

How do you propose "the world" strike US factories?
Your not floating there and you sure as hell are not flying... you gonna walk across the Arctic circle?

There were a number of reason the US never went on the offensive over a large scale, but lack of military power was never one  of them.

[TrashMan]

You can indeed float there... it's a big ocean and if you launch thousands of small boats most of htem will make it undetected. And while the other countris didn't have such a large navy, their ships combined would form a impressive flotilla...enough to jeopardize the US atlantic fleet, which was only a portion of hte pacific fleet b.t.w.

And another thing - you apparently forget that "the world" includes all countries on the same continent as yours as well..so yeah, they could very well walk  there.

Fac it - the US simply doesn't have enough resources to patrol all of it's vast borders or stop a billion angry, armed people.

[Maxwell]

the US simply doesn't have enough resources to patrol all of it's vast borders or stop a billion angry, armed people.

Thats what artillery is for.

If your counting on Canada or Mexico to make up this bulk of this imaginary "army of the outraged" then you'd probably be in for a rude awakening.  Being close allies (by proximity, trade, and politics) they'd stand to loose too much and would gain nothing from a war with their neighbor. The British were in a similar situation immediately after WW2 since much of their essential food and material supply came by ship from the west.

There were more people willing to fight with the US than against it in 1945.
Today, not so much, But when considering the number of weapons under their command the US is still not an enemy you want.

[TrashMan]

Allies yes...but in 1945 US didn't try to take over the world.. Methinks relations would have changed drasticly if they suddenly decided to go the Dr. Evil route