The World at Risk

In the past few years I have really started paying attention to the circus that we call global politics. I have also been an avid player of the board game Risk, and that is what got me and a few friends into a discussion recently.

This is my first ever thread, so please, bare with me for a moment here and let me explain.

Not to toot my own horn or anything but I consider myself quite adept at the game. In fact, the majority of my friends(those who are inclined to play the game in the first place) light-heartedly refuse to play me in the game any more because the majority of the time I stomp them, even when they plan to gang up on me! This is because I have patience but also do not hesitate to strike when I see an opening. My favorite strategy(because it almost always works) is to stay off everyones radar, biding my time until they have exhausted themselves fighting each other due to bold moves that get them nowhere. I then mow through them with my rather large army that has been saved up and when I start moving, then my friends usually realize they are too weak to stop it, even united.

I bring up this game, rated for ages 10 and up, because I see a great parallel between my favorite strategy and what is happening in our world.

Forget the conspiracies about the secret organizations that "control the world" like the illuminati, rothschild, bilderberg, aliens, and all the other drivel, look at what is staring us in the face....China. And to a lesser extent but a wildcard, Russia.

Both of these countries are far older, have had their extreme ups and downs, and the cultural memories of the victories and mistakes that were made. China has been around for THOUSANDS of years in a more or less unified existence(when it concerns outsiders at least). In contrast, the United States and the democratic free world(i know this part is debatable, but thats an argument for another day) have only existed for 250 years and some change, mere children compared to China and even Russia.

The United States acts like an impetuous child who acts according to the "now" with no regard for the future or the next "turn" if you will. And we never learn from our mistakes or those made by others. For example, 1950's - France invades Vietnam but never fully commits and are kicked out. Less than 5 years later we do the same thing, same result. 1980's - Russia invades Afghanistan(a region notoriously difficult to control) and are pushed out. 20 years later we do the same thing and look at us now. Not even mentioning the grudgematch that is the 2nd Iraq war.

China, the birthplace of Sun Tzu, acts methodically and picks its battles. China has stood idly by for decades watching the western world fight skirmish after skirmish and war after war draining our resources and our fighting spirit along with it, while barely even involving itself in any conflicts.

They rarely make bold moves and always fully commit when they do. Tibet for example, we conduct flashy training exercises near Tibet with typical American bravado and vocally support a "free Tibet". TIBET IS NOT IMPORTANT. This only serves to incite China, but still, they make no grand gesture with their military. They just voice their displeasure and say "please dont do that". Meanwhile their army gets stronger and they continue waiting.

Sun Tzu was the greatest military mind whoever lived and his masterpiece "The Art of War" can still accurately predict the outcome of any war 99 times out of 100. China is very much aware of the relevance of this man and his words.

Some of Sun Tzu's tenants are as follows(paraphrased):

- Never spread yourself too thin, fighting battles on multiple fronts is guaranteed to lose the war.

This is how I win that silly little board game every time. My friends get greedy and try to grab everything in sight without thought of holding it after.

What are we doing? Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Libya, hell the entire middle east, drug wars in Central and South America, "humanitarian" missions all over Africa and the former eastern bloc, and numerous other skirmishes that barely get any press but still cost big bucks, equipment, and personnel. We have been involved in Iraq and Afghanistan twice as long as the whole of WW2.....food for thought.

What conflict is China involved in?

- When you are strong, fein weakness. When you are weak, fein strength.

My buddies love to mass their big armies on the big borders between each other, all but screaming "THIS IS WHERE ITS GOING DOWN". Everyone on the board is well focused on the big armies making bold moves, while my armies are casually placed around their "backdoors"....nothing to see here guys.....

We Americans sure love our fancy displays of military might don't we? SHOCK AND AWE, WOOOOOOOOOOO, CRACK ANOTHER BUDWEISER AND FIRE THAT BIG GUN AGAIN!!! Initially it is effective and intimidates our enemies. But it also tips our hand and even backfires when our great military, big explosions and all, fail to defeat the guerilla wars waged by goat herders with AK-47's.

China recently has had its top generals touring our military bases(I'm sorry but.......WTF) and they are raining down compliments on our military, speaking of how strong and mighty the USA and its capabilities are and how China is nowhere near as powerful as we are(FEIGN WEAKNESS). What general would ever talk down their own military?

China's strategy works so well that even though we KNOW they are amassing armies and flooding the military with cash for R&D and equipment. China just unveiled 12, thats right 12, weaponized UAV's they are working on, stealth aircraft, their first aircraft carrier, not to mention their "carrier killer" missile(what nation would that be effective against i wonder). But they haven't made any agressive moves, so we focus on our petty wars in the middle east.

When playing Risk, my friends know that I continue to grow stronger but I never blatantly attack them early to mid game, unless absolutely necessary, so they leave me alone thinking they will handle me later......

We know they are selling weapons and giving aid to countries like Pakistan, Iran, N. Korea....you know, all the countries that are buddy buddy with the USA right? Still we focus on pointless wars elsewhere.

We know that they routinely(see: DAILY) hack our gov't and miltary networks to steal secrets and plant viruses/worms. How do you think they skyrocketed to the level of tech they are at now? Still we focus elsewhere.
China "suggested" TODAY, according to CNN and Drudge Report, that, "Shouldn't the U.S. be spending less on its military and focusing more on its economic recovery?". Sounds like they care right? I really hope we don't listen to China on that one.

I completely neglected Russia which I mentioned at the beginning of this thread, but this is already extremely long, so maybe some other time.

To sum it all up, because this has gone on way longer than I planned, China is playing a great game of RISK. They are sitting on the sidelines, watching the other world powers tear each other apart. Plotting our weaknesses and strengths, how we fight, why we fight, what we fight with. They have a plethora of actionable intelligence on how our military works and even the breaking point of our civilian and political will, while we know..................absolutely squat. They are getting stronger by the minute and ramping it up by the day.
China is making all the moves that I make in a typical game of Risk. While this is kinda flattering on some level, IT SCARES THE LIVING CRAP OUT OF ME.

I can only hope that our govt/military is not as dumb as it seems and that we have a couple aces up our sleeves.

Thoughts?

I would actually be grateful if someone proved me wrong, I could sleep better at night.

Starred and flagged because this was a very interesting and unique perspective of the world. I love "Risk". I just spent four hours playing a single game with my friends a couple months ago. I guess I was playing the role of China

That really was the strategy I used last time. I sat idle and watched everyone else kill each other, then came in and raped the weakened armies.

Come to think of it, now I remember making a "secret" pact with my buddies to all gang up on our one friend because he was being a jackass, LOL.

Great post... Ive never played RISK before, Ive seen it and know of it, but never watched people play or how it works...But now I want to check it out

But I would have to say that is most likely right on target... china is just waiting for us to make another big move before they come after us... I mean isnt their entire army half to two thirds the size of USA's population?

The old "divide and conquer" strategy always works. Watch the others fight among themselves, then when they are done fighting, they are too weak to hold off a little girl. That's when you swoop in.

However, there will be no war with China. The whole world is getting embroiled in the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time, Central Banking. China ALREADY has a Rothschild controlled central bank. So does Russia. They are in on the scam.

Afghanistan did not have a Rothschild controlled central bank. Now they do.

Iraq didn't have one. Now they do.

Libya didn't have one. Strangely enough, the "rebels" that we are "helping" in this insane "humanitarian mission" took the time out from fighting to............wait for it................. set up a CENTRAL BANK. That's right. In the first week of fighting, apparently it was hugely important to these "rebels" to SET UP A CENTRAL BANK.

The only places left that do NOT have Rothschild controlled central banks, Cuba, N. Korea, Iran, Syria.....well, obviously they are THE AXIS OF EVIL AND THEY ARE ATTACKING US BECAUSE THEY HATE OUR FREEDOM.

I can't believe that ANYONE falls for this bs, put apparently everyone does. We, like Israhell, are "defending ourselves" by blowing the s%*( out of other countries for no apparent reasons. Comparable to Mike Tyson claiming a five year old kid was attacking him, and then punching his lights out. How can anyone fall for this stuff? Yet everyone does.....

reply to post by CaptChaos


I dont know if its as much of falling for the scam...

I think its more like join or die, or watch your family die etc..

reply to post by itsatrap

Both of these countries are far older, have had their extreme ups and downs, and the cultural memories of the victories and mistakes that were made. China has been around for THOUSANDS of years in a more or less unified existence(when it concerns outsiders at least). In contrast, the United States and the democratic free world(i know this part is debatable, but thats an argument for another day) have only existed for 250 years and some change, mere children compared to China and even Russia.

I hear this kind of argument a lot and I disagree strongly with its implications.

The Russian government has been around in its current form since the fall of communism (1990) and the Chinese Communist government has been around since Mao took over in 1949. Both of these governments are thus much younger than the US government, which has had the same constitution and basic form for over 200 years. In fact, the US has one of the longest continutites of rule of any country on earth!

What really makes up the daily life for people in Russia and China -- things like bus and train lines, sewar services, apartment complexes, cars and cellphones and banking services and so on -- none of this has root in the "ancient ways".

OK, I can hear you saying, what about "culture." What about it? Why is a Chinese person heir to any more or less culture than anyone else on earth? Both an American and a Chinese have the same number of ancestors, right? If the Chinese can somehow invoke the culture of their ancestors from two thousand years ago, than an American can every bit as legitimately claim the be heir to the classical Western civilization of Greece and Rome, for example.

reply to post by CaptChaos


Thanks for hijacking the thread with that drivel.
All of the weapons china is working on are aimed at countering some advantage the usa has. They hack us daily and then claim ignorance. Every day they come out with more "advice" for us that would actually help them. Another report released today announced that china's "eye in the sky"(satellite surveillance) capabilities are almost on par with ours.
If there were some evil group that supposedly controlled both china and the usa, why are we competing instead of taking over the world? Surely the USA,China, EU, and Russia could conquer the globe? If the goal was some oppressive regime controlling the globe, it would have been done by now. The argument makes no sense.
I don't doubt the rothschild family is loaded and can influence politics, but they have no more ability than any large corporation with a pack of lobbyists. And, no, all the corporations and rich people are not working together, because in the end there would only be one ruler and they all love their power and would be unwilling to give it up. Because that is how greedy bastards work, they all want the big piece of chicken.

No one or group of persons can predict how hundreds off countries will react to a singular event, much less a series of events. Just not possible.

I did not post this thread to discuss unsubstantiated claims. Perhaps I was naive in expecting intelligent debate.

reply to post by Partygirl


At least you didn't resort to shadow groups, thank you.

How much do you truly know about your family's history, prior to your grandparents that is? The chinese are a collectivistic society, they care more for the group and nearly worship their leaders. If they are told to do something for country they will, or die trying. Most chinese families can easily trace their history back hundreds if not thousands of years, a lot of the time by surname alone. They quite possibly even have a painting of their great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather hanging in their household as my ex-girlfriends family did(short-lived relationship after meeting the parents, first generation american-chinese daughter is not dating a white boy.......). They practice a form of ancestor worship, so knowing their roots is a part of daily life. So yes, I would say they do have a greater cultural memory. Western culture evolved independent of eastern and is vastly different.

A lot of americans don't even see their parents but once our twice a year on holidays, much less older generations. They are too concerned with themselves. There is no respect for elders in the United States, most Americans ship off grandparents when they become too "difficult" to take care of. That would be(and should be) unthinkable in China! We have no substantial cultural memory prior to the 1700's. China may have changed govts in name but they still rule through the same principles.

Where as prior to being known as americans, we were known as many different nationalities, but the chinese will be and always have been chinese. A homogenous nation would naturally have a better cultural memory.

Maybe the reason you hear it a lot is because it has merit....

Interesting post. There was a similarly themed one that I also enjoyed reading earlier today:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

I loved playing Risk as a kid. I had the version with wooden blocks (probably made in China with lead paint).
I'll try to give my thoughts on some of the scenarios about potential war with China.

Economic.
They would lose one of their largest consumers for their goods and products. They would also lose their rather significant investment in our debt overnight. I think that what happens between now and the 2012 election will determine whether the economic war front breaks out or fades quitely into the background.

Military.
I have to agree that China has been agressively been building up their military. I would venture to say that the US is still capable of defeating the Chinese weaponry in a conventional conflict with existing and known hardware though. If you factor in our black projects, I'd say we'd be more than capable. A few well placed Tomahawks targeting the 3 Gorges Dam would cause them quite a bit of trouble. I'm not blindly patriotic believing the US can win a war against every country hands down, but I do believe that we have battle plans for almost every conceivable scenario...similar to Bruce Willis in Armegeddon saying "Your guys are NASA...you have people just sitting around thinking sh$t up." If China agressively continues to build up their military for the next decade or 2, the playing field may be level.

Cyber / Hacking.
This is probably my biggest concern. I admit that probably too many components in electronics are manufactured in China. Is it possible that there are hidden back doors to access these devices in a time of war? Who knows. I'd like to think that our most sensitive equipment has home grown parts in it. Everyday in the news, we hear another incident of military contractors being hacked into. If it were me, I'd have a ton of misleading info on our networks just waiting to be hacked. Let them think they hit the mother load of info and in reality they'd only be getting junk.

Education.
This one really annoys me. I'm 42 and remember when the US had some of the best and brightest minds in the engineering and sciences fields. Now we're more like a 3rd world country. Just go into any fast food place and watch the person ringing up your food almost struggle with giving you change. It's a shame. My kids are 14 and 11 and my wife and I constantly hound them and try to point out issues like these that are dragging our country down the toilet.

That's my 2 cents. Hopefully our current global game of Risk will end with a stalmate...for our sake and for our future generations sake.