That depends, Jack. Major wars occur when aggressive empires expand onto other people's turf or strategic interests in a way that is finally unacceptable. Japan's expansion into China and Indochina led finally to a great war between the Japanese Empire and an America/Britain/Holland/China alliance. The Japanese simply had gone too far.

Looking at it the other way, FDR's moves to cut off Japanese access to oil and steel in 1941 became finally unacceptable to Japan...which caused Japan to attack in December '41. America had gone too far, from the Japanese point of view.

Hitler's moves into the Rhineland, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland became finally unacceptable to western Europe, which led to a British and French declaration of war on Germany, much to Hitler's surprise. He had absolutely no wish to fight England, in particular.

America and Britain are presently moving to take over vital strategic areas all over the world, mostly connected to oil. Their first stroke was in Afghanistan, aimed at the Caspian oil fields, and the opium crop in Afghanistan. Their next stroke is aimed at the 2nd biggest oil deposits in the world, underneath Iraq. There is also an attempt underway to destabilize and take over Venezuela (which sits atop the world's 5th largest oil reserves) from within, and topple a democratically elected government that, oddly enough, is supported by the poor people, and opposed by the middle class and the wealthy (imagine that! how very odd!).

This is all being done basically as an Anglo-American effort, and it treads directly upon the strategic interests of Russia, China, France, Germany, the rest of Europe and Asia, and most of the world's smaller nations and their people.

Everyone was afraid to fight Hitler in 1939, because they figured he was far better armed and better prepared (and in the air and psychologically, he was)...but...they had finally had enough.

I am suggesting that a time will come when too many strategic interests are threatened, and Russia, China, and many others will have finally had enough. It can happen. And it doesn't necessarily mean that everyone fires off all their nukes either. Wars can happen by measured stages and on isolated battlefields here and there.

The US economy is a one-armed tiger, and a very sick one at this point. Take a look in the stores. Where are the world's goods made now? They are made in China, Korea, Japan, and Taiwan. The USA is tops in just one thing...high tech weaponry. China has the capability to match that expertise in, I'd say, 3 to 5 years if they devoted all resources they could toward that end. If they feel they must, then they will.

- LH