War isn't about winning, it's about losing less than whomever you're wagig it against.
Modern warfare isn't about troops or tanks, that's why the only thing you accomplish in Iraq is ****ing up your own economy. Modern warfare is about missile and defense systems. And frankly, it's not like Russia or China couldn't nuke the States if they wanted to.
Originally posted by Newjak
What are the goals of this war. Is it the us defending against them invading or vice versa. Or is it something else.
If the USA has to invade and force China and Russia to capitulate, there's no way America wins without the help of all of its allies (if it can at all), but if it has to achieve most goals less than that (say, expel Russia from Eastern Ukraine while also defending the Philippines from a Chinese invasion) it could probably accomplish those goals and achieve a favorable peace, but it would be more difficult than any war since WW2.
Originally posted by Omega Vision
Basically this. How a war turns out between USA and Russia/China is entirely dependent on the goals.If the USA has to invade and force China and Russia to capitulate, there's no way America wins without the help of all of its allies (if it can at all), but if it has to achieve most goals less than that (say, expel Russia from Eastern Ukraine while also defending the Philippines from a Chinese invasion) it could probably accomplish those goals and achieve a favorable peace, but it would be more difficult than any war since WW2.
The US can basically trash any and every opposing military, but actually occupying and such... yea, that's a lot harder.
Originally posted by Astner
Wars don't work like that.
However, in a pure stand-up fight, the US military is designed to crush enemies like Russia.
I don't know how this would play out but my best guess would be The USA would do well early on. We have poured more resources into our military so we would initially gain the upper hand.
If it gets long and drawn out though I think we will start to see a shift due to China and Russia being able to throw more manpower/resources against. China has 1.35 billion people or something close to that. They have a strong economy and while Russia is a baby compared to the soviet union they can still pour in some vast resources as well.
So I could see a WW2 Germany Scenario happen where we just keep getting whittled down while two superpowers drain us of bodies and materials.
Of course there are many variables that would need to be accounted for such as weather, location, intelligence gathering, other logistics such as food, water, supplies.