gladius said:
(1) You have no evidence to back yourself up that's why you resort to this don't you? Such pitiful tactics.
(2) Yes, but Eruope still imports a good deal from there. Not to mention the Arabs still sell to China, Japan and India so they will always be making money to buy weapons.
(3) And when some fanatical Islamic sticks his AK-74 bayonet deep in you belly, and yells "Allah achbar!" to your face while you gurgle out your last, the thought that will run through your mind will be that... "Gladius was right all along."
One of the problems with these posts is related to structure. Too many points get raised and are lost. I will cut this one down in size. This does not mean that I reject or accept issues that I decide to avoid. We all have limited time.
Quick response:
(1) I have rejected the EMP as a threat. You have not. Fine. The problem deals with your argument. You argue that the civilian economy (ie. industry) is unimportant for warmaking purposes. If this is true, and I will address this point in a moment, then who cares about EMP. Why is the European military in serious difficulties if the lights go out? Do not give your standard answers. Believe me, the Europeans have done contingency planning since the 1960s. The troops are trained for EMP. The civilian economy can be repaired. Even Germany, battered by years of strategic bombing, regained its place as primary European industrial power by 1950. So, who cares. [I tried to show you how a way of thinking can distort analysis of "facts". I overestimated your intellectual abilities. Sorry. I will stick to your simplistic "factual" approach.]
(2) In order to buy weapons, you need a seller. All of the world's highly industrialized nations horde their best military technology and have instituted a series of agreements controlling the proliferation of certain weapons. (see Wassenar, etc.) Third World countries do not have either the money or the legal ability to purchase fantastic quantities of the best and most modern weapons. Think about the "Eurofighter" for example. When the Europeans build a few hundred for themselves, they only sell a small number to other countries outside of NATO. According to the proposals, only 72 of 638 will go to an Arab country. All weapons (other than surplus junk) follow this format. The Islamic forces, under these conditions, are horribly outnumbered. In fact, the European producers would probably like to sell a lot more. Why? The profit feeds new investments and even better weapons. This is an armaments dynamic.
(3) The arab who tries to stick a bayonet in my belly? Sorry buddy, the Arabs like detonating themselves. That is what everyone is afraid of. In any case, I think that the US has more to fear than Germany. We have not experienced anything like 9/11. You guys are the ones under siege. Unlike you, I think the US will win the war on terror. The end of Islamic fundamentalism is in everyone's interests...and sort of destructive concerning your theory. According to you, the United States will lose the war. I think not.
Here are a few points of importance:
(1)
Israel & Turkey:The Israeli and Turkish armies are just plain huge and constitute two of the largest military forces of the Middle East. Both states are Euro-friendly. In the case of Turkey, a case might be made that the country could face a fundamentalist revolution. In the case of Israel, we have another problem. It is clear that the Arab world would have to neutralize Israel prior to an invasion of Europe. Why? Because Israel represents a major transit route and they control the eastern Mediterranean. At current rates of development and growth, I see no ability for the Islamic world to "deal" with Israel. And, the Israelis are watching the Islamic world...very intensely. [If you think that the Israelis will just watch as Europe is attacked, think about this: the Israelis are currently binding their defence industry to Europe as part of their overall strategy].
(2)
Military size is meaningless - quality counts: Even with an army of millions, China is considered a second-rate power. In order for the Arab world to surpass European military power, basically impossible, they would have to spend gigantic sums of money on infrastructure. Not even China is capable of this. Why? Because you need all of the civilian elements of industry to build an army...food reserves, hospitals, repair facilities, training bases, airfields, docks, steel manufacturing, etc. Your argument that the Islamic world will only buy the weapons is like arguing that money grows on trees. It is because of homemade weapons that Israel has the strongest military in the Middle East. If you look at the Islamic military statistics, they are in any case rather small. Add technological inferiority to the equation, and you have a severe problem on your hands.
(3)
Europe is getter stronger - not weaker: The Israeli argument. In any case, the total value of German EXPORTS alone is about half of the entire GNP of the Middle East...now, that's money. (This includes Israel and Turkey). Add the UK and France (plus all the others) and the imbalance is staggering. The Middle East cannot change the imbalance without investment in the civilian infrastructure. This means that Europe can outbuy the Middle East and not just outproduce them. Europe is also expanding. By 2020, it is possible to envision the entry of Russia, Turkey and Israel into the EU.
(4)
The Middle East is getting poorer: The population is increasing. Economic development is lagging far behind. The economic and political costs of this development are staggering: "Large population growth rates generate tremendous stresses on the states' resources as these people need access to clean water, food, medicine, education, and so on". The best growth rates for the period in question only hit around 3-5%. At that rate, it will take several tens of thousands of years to overtake Europe.
(5)
Iraq lost because of a revolution in warfare: Iraq did not lose because they sat back and did nothing. Or because they only outnumbered the Americans 2:1. Iraq lost because they were in fact outnumbered and western military development had entered a new phase based on highly sophisticated weapons. There are no reasons to argue that the Islamic world will either outnumber European troops or have better technology. Again, without an indigenous infrastructure at least comparable with Europe, which is impossible, they cannot design or manufacture the necessary equipment.
(6)
The Chinese Example: According to Congress, the Chinese are following a dangerous path: "Continued economic growth and reform are essential to PLA modernization. In absolute terms, this translates into increased funding available for defense. Broad-based growth and modernization also expands China’s economic capacities in industry, technology, and human resources, enabling its leaders to accelerate military modernization in relative terms, as well". Your argument that the Islamic world can build a huge army without civilian industrial development is absurd. No military thinker of any repute (unless he is stoned) will agree with you. The whole issue of a dangerous China is the coupling of industrial development with military issues.
I am getting tired, so here is a
synopsis: Since the Islamic world cannot raise a larger or more effective army than Europe, it needs EMPs and guerillas to destroy the state from within and neutralize the army. Both of these factors are highly questionable. An EMP will not work. Nor will an insurrection. That leaves an Islamic army against a far superior European army. They will lose.
[By the way, all of the calculations in this thread concerning naval combat in the Med. and possible avenues of Islamic attack are so stupid that they boggle the mind. You state that the Europeans will not employ strategic bombing against the Middle-East because they will not bomb European soil. First of all, all previous wars demonstrated that Europeans love bombing themselves. Secondly, strategic bombing means hitting supply lines, depots, and ships. The conventional bombs, chemical weapons, and even nukes would fall on Africa and Asia. An attack on Spain or through the Balkans or via the Med. is impossible. Such an attack would take years of preparations, billions in new transportation equipment and infrastructure, and would be impossible to conceal. You cannot just put an army somewhere...real life is different from fantasy.]
[My sources were cut off when I copied the post. Is there a way to turn off the automatic logout?]