Reply #5: Yeah, but [View All]

who would really be prepared to take us on? We're still a nuclear power.

In your historical analogy, Russia acquiesed in the rape of Poland, since they got to keep the eastern chunk. Hitler's real Bushian moment was in believing he was strong enough to take Russia on, while still busy consolidating Europe. And then, as you know, Russia did the heavy lifting in defeating Hitler. To this day, Russians refer to WW2 as The Great Patriotic War, mindful that they lost millions of men-- their Greatest Generation wound up largely dead.

Russia could mount a credible attack against us-- they also have nukes, and submarines. There probably wouldn't be much shooting by infantry forces, it's probably be somewhere between Shock and Awe and Mutually Assured Destruction, and there wouldn't be much left of either combatant afterward.

Greater likelihood is, China and Japan figure out what would be a good time to start selling US T-bills, which would cause the dollar to tank and interest rates to skyrocket. But they'd probably do that regardless of Iraq-- unsustainable fiscal (and trade) deficits are like that.