Discussion Forums > Politics

So much for privacy on the Whole Wide World (Ed on TED)

<< < (40/80) > >>

lololitas:
It's only called a superpower because it's the only nation that has ever used nuclear bombs in a conflict. Now if the US starts throwing around their bombs again I might acknowledge them as a super power, but right now even india and israel have enough armament to destroy the world. When it comes to that russia is the bigger superpower.

Tiffanys:
I think it's moreso because of our geopolitical influence (not to mention the size of our military)... which is strongly evident here.

Before you go around saying nonsense like Russia is a bigger superpower... take a look at military budgets: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget

The USA dwarfs the next eleven combined.

lololitas:
I don't see where the geopolitical influence came from really. Well the US kinda hogged the glory for WW2, and was the first to have nukes. Now it has a declining economy, plastic houses and a paranoid intelligence agency. There is this joke going around the arab community recently:

(click to show/hide)An old arab, that's been living for over 40years in chicago, wants to plant potatoes in his garden, but he is to old and weak. So he writes to his son, who studies in paris: "Dear Ahmed, I'm sad that I can't plant potatoes. I'm sure if you were here you would help me dig the garden. Your dad"
Soon the old man receives an answer: "Dear dad, don't touch anything in the garden, because I hid "the thing" there. Your Ahmed." 6 hours later FBI, CIA and NSA surround the old arabs house and start searching the garde, digging through it's entirety. Without finding anything they leave dissapointed. A short while later the old man receives another mail from his son: "Dear Father, I assume that your garden is now ready to plant the potatoes. I'm sorry that I couldn't do more for you. In love Ahmad"

Now in all seriousness, a country that touts equality of men in it's constitution that want's to enforce it all over the world (especially in oil rich areas) can't treat other countries as shit. In that sense the UN doing as the US likes in most cases is any even worse fail than it's predecessor the league of nations.

Also what do you need that huge military spending for, a couple of nukes and all that is gone. Instead that money should go into something like the scrubbers I saw in an anime (I think GITS SAC3) to clean radiation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_with_nuclear_weapons The US has more active warheads (despite disarmement promises), but russia has mor warheads in total. Not that it'd matter, a fraction of these two countries bombs is enough to destroy the world (should start building me a vault and buying some nuke-a-cola bottles!) It's been proven in the past that not the size of the military matters, but instead the training and equipment. With that huge military I'm surprised the US has so many troubles in afghanistan (that both the UK and russia declared uncolonizable during imperialist times already) In WW2 the french had the bigger and better army (in the beginning), but still lost.

AceHigh:
It's neither nukes, usage of nukes, nor the budget.

The superpower by a common definition is a country that exercises influence over other nations. An empire by the older semantic definition.

What makes USA a superpower?
1. Global economic dominance, US dollars is a de-facto international currency controlled by USA.
2. Geopolitical dominance. USA has major influence with EU, Arab League, South America, Asia, BRIC, AU and international entities like UN, WTO, etc...
3. Military dominance, not through a budget which is just an index of bloat and inefficiency, but through military alliances, oversea military bases and intelligence gathering through allies.
4. Culture export. The whole world knows about America, even when stupid Americans can't place 90% of other countries on a map.
5. Corporate/private entrepreneurship dominance. No country has ever conquered entire Russia, but McDonalds did.

So what is Russia then? It was a contest for superpower title during the cold war, but lost. Still it is a major power.
1. Regional economic dominance. Those neighbour countries don't really stand a chance.
2. Geopolitical influence limited mostly to neigbours. is a leader of some military and political blocks.
3. Military might enough to deter attacks, including from a superpower.


In fact USA demonstrated to be a superpower because it made it's allied countries to intercept a presidential plane.

VicViper573:

--- Quote from: AceHigh on August 02, 2013, 07:40:58 PM ---Yeah, because USA would give a shit about a piece of paper. Ever heard the phrase "might makes right"? And USA isn't called a superpower for nothing.

--- End quote ---

It's generally accepted by all nations not to mess with another country's diplomats.  If the USA did it to Snowden, other countries could easily do the same thing to US diplomats stationed there.

It's kinda similar to Assange being stuck in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.  The English threatened to go into that embassy, but realized the repercussions to British embassies in other countries.

Again, the US could still choose to disregard that, but it would set a very bad precedent from a diplomatic standpoint.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page