The United States...

[Bigity]

Actually, Japanese soldiers occupied several of the Aluetian (sp?) Islands (part of Alaska) during WWII. There weren't any US resources or people there, but they were still "invaded".

Not that I don't think our military is great, just correcting you.

[*BBB* ZERO]

I did not know that. I'll have to read closer next time...thank you. I did say mainland though.

[Bigity]

True, but they are US soil. Most people probably wouldn't really count it anyway.

[Onimitsagi Sshoumurao]

[quote="SothThe69th";p="352841"]

4. We have the strongest army ever known.

Tell that to the Chinese.

[/quote]

Actually, I believe that we DO have the strongest... or most advanced technology... something along those lines. Chinese have a friggin HUGE army, which can be interpreted as strongest if you want.

Figuring that, out of all the wars America's been in, we only lost 1 or 2 (to my miniscule knowledge, atleast). Can't complain.

Edit: Okay, yes, I know. Really late post. Just came back from vacation, gimme a break.

[*BBB* ZERO]

LOL I didn't include pearl harbor or 9/11 though.

Posted Fri Jun 18, 2004 4:23 pm:

[

Figuring that, out of all the wars America's been in, we only lost 1 or 2 (to my miniscule knowledge, atleast). Can't complain.

We haven't lost any!

[McDoofus]

In other words,

America: 25
World: 0

raperaperape

[Martin Blank]

Someone forgetting the War of 1812, when the White House and Capitol were burned? I seem to remember there being an awful lot of British soldiers on the mainland at that time.

And China's armed forces number about 1.6 million men, most of whom are in their army. The navy (known as the People's Liberation Army Navy, oddly enough) is quite weak and suitable only for coastal defense. They have some blue-water ships, but those are mostly used for larger-area defensive operations. I laugh when people talk about China invading Taiwan, as they have only enough troop transports to move a few thousand soldiers at a time, and at one time they actually discussed commandeering private boats and putting 3-10 soldiers on each and crossing the Straits to invade. The Chinese air force may be something to reckon with -- they have numbers, reasonably good pilots, and their technology isn't too far back -- but that's about it. The major weakness for them could be the strict, Soviet-style central control system that they used to use; I don't imagine they've done away with that.

[Dr. Tower]

[quote="*BBB* ZERO";p="355691"]LOL I didn't include pearl harbor or 9/11 though.

Posted Fri Jun 18, 2004 4:23 pm:

[

Figuring that, out of all the wars America's been in, we only lost 1 or 2 (to my miniscule knowledge, atleast). Can't complain.

We haven't lost any![/quote]

Your reason for this:

1. We have never lost a war. (we didn't lose vietnam cause for every one american killed, 15 vietnameese were killed.)

What if I could name a war in which the United States was the only country to have a significant death count? Would that mean we lost the Civil War? Well, personally I think that the Civil war was a loss for the United States. But anyway, the Union had about 360,000 deaths to the Confederates 258,000, so if we went by who had the fewest casualties, the CSA won.

Some papers you may want to read concerning the Vietnam War:
Efforts to Make Sense of the Vietnam War, Journal of Cold War Studies Vol 5, No. 2, Spring 2003 pp 68-72
Memories of a Lost War, Reviews in American History Vol 31 2003, pp 161-169
"An Inward Looking Time": The United States Army, 1973-1976, Journal of Military History Vol. 67, Issue: 2, April 01, 2003. pp. 483-511.

If you can find a reputable military historian that claims that the US won the war, and why they claim this I would like to see their work.

Finally, we did not accomplish what we set out to do in Vietnam. North Vietnam did accomplish what they set out to do. I don't know about you, but to me that mean that North Vietnam won, and thus, the United States lost.

[SothThe69th]

[quote="Onimitsagi Sshoumurao";p="355690"][quote="SothThe69th";p="352841"]

4. We have the strongest army ever known.

Tell that to the Chinese.
[/quote]
Actually, I believe that we DO have the strongest... or most advanced technology... something along those lines. Chinese have a friggin HUGE army, which can be interpreted as strongest if you want.[/quote]

The way I see it is like this, if and when China decided that they don't like us any more, they could (concievably, thought not likely) arm a quarter of the population (IIRC China's population, that would match up with our total population) with some form of gun, build a thousand transports, then start at Alaska and work their way down.

Or heck, take another quarter of their population, kill them, drop them in the ocean, and form a bridge of HUMAN CORPSES. I only wish I was kidding about this, but I'm rather sure that this would actually work (in the ridiculously hypothetical situation where they kill a quarter billion people to make a bridge from their bodies and they can find people willing to walk on 250 million other peoples corpses.)

[Bigity]

Good call MB. I had forgotten about that as well.

[Onimitsagi Sshoumurao]

[quote="*BBB* ZERO";p="355691"]LOL I didn't include pearl harbor or 9/11 though.

Posted Fri Jun 18, 2004 4:23 pm:

[

Figuring that, out of all the wars America's been in, we only lost 1 or 2 (to my miniscule knowledge, atleast). Can't complain.

We haven't lost any![/quote]

....

[Imperator Severn]

You kill 500 Roman soldiers by your lonesome, you will go down in histroy as the greatest soldier of all time!

So the men who hijacked the airplanes which took down the World Trade Center were great soldiers?

Besides, what if the Roman soldiers which Martin referred to had similar weaponry and knew how to use it?

It is impossible to compare armies of different eras in such a way.

The reason most people think Roman soldiers were so badass is because thier competition was weak. Small, frail bodies, little or no knowledge of warfare. Most soldiers in that time were just farmboys picked up by the prince and told to stand in a group with swords in their hands. So when the slighly skilled and experienced Roman killed 10, it wasn't because he was "Teh bestest ever OMG," but rather because it was like shooting a fish in a barrel.

That is complete and utter Bullshit. I suggest you invest in a library card and read up on the Romans, because your lack of historical knowledge is staggering.

No enemy soldier in the history of the United States has ever set foot on our soil. There has never been an invasion aimed at the mainland. There is a reason for this. There are reasons the U.S. has been as powerful as it is. There are reasons we can go into Iraq, and no one can do shit about it. There are reasons we can eliminate a terrible dictator and take steps forward to eliminating terror all together.(virtually)

The British launched several invasions during the revolutionary war, as well as the War of 1812. As to why there has not been any major invasion (Although Mexico made some small incursions) since then is our geographic position. Bear in mind that the United States is separated from all other major powers by thousands of miles of ocean. For most of Our History, the only people who could reach us by land were the Indians, Mexicans, and Canadians. War between the US and Britain was very unlikely after about 1850, and the British gave up ruling the US in 1783. The invasion that destroyed our capital was more a raid than an attempted conquest; the British just wanted to end the war with a chunk of our territories (which is much the same goal we had.) They had no intention of bringing The American populace back into the fold, no more than they wanted to rule France. Any power that wanted to invade the US from the sea would need a massive Navy, one that would alarm the British, who valued their mastery of the Oceans enough to go to war to protect said dominance. That is to say, Britain indirectly protected the US from invasion during the years between 1815 and 1914.

And for the record, no one ever said that the modern US military is a bunch of weaklings.

If anyone wants to talk about the Chinese army, consider that they fought us to a standstill in Korea after knocking us back out of the north.

[McDoofus]

[quote="Imperator Severn";p="355860"]

You kill 500 Roman soldiers by your lonesome, you will go down in histroy as the greatest soldier of all time!

So the men who hijacked the airplanes which took down the World Trade Center were great soldiers?[/quote]
I think there is a difference between terrorist attacks on innocent, unarmed civilians and soldier vs soldier on the battle field. Nice try, though.

The rest of your post is humorous. Innaccurate and completeley ignorable, but humorous nonetheless.

[Dark Nexus]

I normally try to be polite, but every now and then the urge to feed the trolls is just too much....

[quote="*BBB* ZERO";p="355676"]The United States has the best trained soldiers of all time.[/quote]

Suuure they do! OK, the US military ELITE (Navy Seals, the best Marines, etc) may well fit that description - they're damned good, but account for only a small portion of the troops. I'm sorry, but for all it's equipment, the US army as a whole isn't well trained at all. The same may or may not be said for the other branches, though I expect they all have higher entry requirements for anybody being placed in combat situations (especially the Air Force and Marines).

Frankly, most other 1st world countries have better trained armies (on whole) than the US. The reason the US military is so powerful is it's numbers (about half the size of China's given the last numbers I've heard, and that's still pretty big) and STRONG technological advantage. The standard training drags the quality of the US military DOWN, not up.

And even with the US military elite, they aren't necessarily the best. Canadian snipers have been acknowledged as the best in the world by the US military itself, and the British SAS (among others, I don't really know for sure) could probably give the Seals or Marines a run for best overall.

In conclusion: Best overall? Yes. Best equiped? Yes. Best trained? Not a chance.

/me stops feeding the trolls.

[McDoofus]

You make it sound like the US military was just sitting around one day, and all of a sudden all these technological advances just dropped in their lap. Not correct.

I'm sorry, but for all it's equipment, the US army as a whole isn't well trained at all.

How could you say this? What makes you believe that that statement is even remotely accurate? From what sources are you recieving your information?