Bouillabaisse said:
The Chileans would be quite handy in a shooting war.
Granted, I did say "as a general rule of thumb", but yes, I should have made an exception for the Chileans. I have cousins over there, one of whom is a former Chilean Army officer, and I found that his outlook and opinions differed considerably from what I would have expected from a member of a South American military.
Recruiting_Office_reject said:
The Chileans should not be tarred with the same brush as the rest, they have an excellent navy (using several not so old ex RN & Dutch ships) which includes the excellent Scorpene sub. Their army once its finished its current upgrading (350 Leopards etc) won't be so bad either. Their airforce has newish F-16's as well. They are probably the most professional of the South American military forces.
Maybe Brazil is responding the the build up of its neighbours ?
In terms of history, tradition (decidedly Prussian in ethos) and approach, I would concur that the Chileans are without doubt the most professional force in South America. Ironically, during the Pinochet years it was felt by many in the Chilean Armed Forces that they were being neglected, particularly in terms of equipment.
Surely Brazil, with its population and land mass, cannot really fear its neighbours? Perhaps it's a case of 'keeping up with the Jones''?
KGB_resident said:
Hi Gollowglass!
30 yesrs ago you could say something like this about China but definetely not now. Maybe you would like to repeat you statement toward India?
There are so called BRIC countries - Brazil, Russia, India and China. It is expected that in the not so remote future total economics of the 4 would be bigger that G7 (G8 - Russia) countries.
The appetites are apperaring in the process of eating. Economic power, wealth, natural resources require means to defend them.
Howdo Sergey,
I certainly wouldn't have said something like this about China remembering Korea nor India. I stand by what I said about Brazil though.
The economies of the BRIC countries
might become bigger than those of the G7
if the economies of the G7 countries collapse or stand still for the next thirty years. If you like Sergey, I can direct you to similar predictions dating from the 1970s which predicted alternatively that (a) the world's oil reserves would run out by 1990 or 2000 (wrong); (b) that a new ice age would occur (wrong) or that (c)thermonuclear war would have broken out by 1980/85/90 (wrong). One prediction I am inclined to believe however is that Russia is in a demographic death spiral, which will rather upset your belief that it will form part of the BRIC economic powerhouse; I'm inclined to believe this because it's already happening.
I'm always amused at how ready or is that desperate? you are to predict the end of the United States as a hyperpower based on the last six years (or last four years if you take Iraq as your benchmark), when your own country has been bogged-down in Chechnya for
thirteen years, is governed by a former secret policeman, has merely the outward appearances of democracy, has no middle class worth speaking of, is still rendered numb by the collapse of the Soviet Union and has health problems most prominent among them HIV/AIDS unequalled elsewhere in the developed world. After 70-plus years of Communism, followed by the shambles that came after, the only way Russia is going to equal or outstrip the United States is if the US deliberately decides to kill off a high proportion of its own citizens, destroys its middle class, and enforces a system of political and economic governance upon itself which a child would recognise as unworkable; in short, the United States would need to commit national suicide in order to f*ck itself up to the extent that Russia was.