Unusual Source for Chinese Steel

[diogenes]

I'm wondering how the Chinese are able to go collect old Russian steel out of Afghanistan without getting shot at by the Taliban. I guess the Taliban are cool with the Chinese maybe.

The Chinese aren't collecting the steel, the Afghans are. The Chinese are just buying it.

When I was in Afghanistan I used to see jingle truck after jingle truck on Route 1, the "ring" road around Afghanistan, loaded with pieces of huge pipe cut lengthwise and stacked. It turns out that the Afghans are digging up and selling every piece of steel pipe that was left in the old soviet complexes.

There isn't a lot of trash laying around in Afghanistan, if it has any value it is picked up, quick. Hell, even after a firefight the kids are swarming around to pick up the brass.

 

[T56 Impala]

The ROC is buying up all the steel so that WHEN the time comes, we nor our allies, will have any metal left to manufacture ANYTHING. I read an article a few years back saying that, and I am using my own words here, it would take the good ole US of A 5 YEARS to start making plastic toys in any great volume again. FIVE YEARS!!! Imagine how long it would take us to tool up for an extended, conventional conflict where Tanks, Guns and ACPs would need to be mass produced in massive numbers.

Actually, I doubt the gooberment and the military (I am NOT criticizing the military at all with this statement. I have a huge respect for those that serve!) could defend our shores if an invader decided we were ripe for the picking. It would have to come down to the PEOPLE of this country to protect it from invaders.

 

[diogenes]

It would have to come down to the PEOPLE of this country to protect it from invaders.

It always does. Why do you think we nuked Japan?

 

[Bolster]

...we are the only ones out buying the cheap trinkets and trash that they manufacture....

Except that we're not the only ones buying cheap Chinese ****. North and South America, Europe, and particularly Australia is awash in Chinese goods. They have become the manufacturer to the world. I agree, we are huge consumers, but if we stopped buying tomorrow, they'd have lots of other markets. We've fed the beast to the point we can no longer stop it.

...could defend our shores if an invader decided we were ripe for the picking. It would have to come down to the PEOPLE of this country to protect it from invaders.

In that case, we are rotten ripe for the picking. I'm shocked (on a daily basis) by the spinelessness I see in congress, except for the ongoing divisive battle between political left and right...that, we have energy for. I envision the next war that America finds herself in, California and New York will declare war on the midwest and the south. We'll be lobbing handbags, condoms, and flooding you with propaganda. We'll bust out Sean Penn. What are you guys going to fire back with?

 

[TAMPAGT07]

Except that we're not the only ones buying cheap Chinese ****. North and South America, Europe, and particularly Australia is awash in Chinese goods. They have become the manufacturer to the world. I agree, we are huge consumers, but if we stopped buying tomorrow, they'd have lots of other markets.

I believe we are about 20% of Chinese exports.

 

[oldtools]

Short economics lesson.

China is manufacturing goods.
The US is buying goods.
If the US dollar tanks, so does the Chinese economy
If the US dollar soars, so does the Chinese economy.
If the US becomes totally subject to the Chinese, we have to use Chinese currency, at the Chinese value.
If we use the Chinese currency, at the Chinese value, their economy will totally tank.
Thus, that means that the success of China, is nearly totally dependent on getting US dollars, because, we are the only ones out buying the cheap trinkets and trash that they manufacture.
If everyone in the US committed right now to buying nothing but American made goods, we would quickly drive Walmart out of business, because they would have few viable products to sell, and totally destroy the Chinese economy, driving their politico's into poverty. Of course, the rank and file would be able to maintain their current obscenely low standard of living, because it is a communist regime, after all.

But America no longer produce any goods.

 

[X1 Mike]

In that case, we are rotten ripe for the picking. I'm shocked (on a daily basis) by the spinelessness I see in congress, except for the ongoing divisive battle between political left and right...that, we have energy for. I envision the next war that America finds herself in, California and New York will declare war on the midwest and the south. We'll be lobbing handbags, condoms, and flooding you with propaganda. We'll bust out Sean Penn. What are you guys going to fire back with?

Screw you! If you lob Sean Penn were throwing him back.

 

[Nealcrenshaw]

What war??? Can you say nuclear weapons? (MAD)?

 

[krooser]

A few years ago I saw a documentary film on China's home industrys...they showed a guy with a small foundry in his backyard... he was making transmission castings for a local manufacturer. He had a pretty good coal fire going under a steel cauldron. His "formula" for making the iron was "two pounds of bicycle frame, one pound cast iron, three pieces of washing machine steel, etc"... something like that.

After the castings cooled and were shaken to remove the sand, he loaded up two or three and hauled them to the assembly plant in his rickshaw... from there the forced slave labor and 10 year old kids took over...

 

[gary41276]

How long before china gets there **** steel back faster than they can ship it out?

 

[Bolster]

What war??? Can you say nuclear weapons? (MAD)?

Mutual Assured Destruction? Ha! Haven't you been reading the papers? Our weaponry is so old and untested, they're unlikely to work anymore. The money that was supposed to keep the weapons functional has been used to "stimulate the economy" (ie, buy off favored supporters) and keep grandma on her pills. There is no 'MAD' anymore. There is just 'AD.' The 'M' is no longer functional, it got cut for budget reasons.

My advice to all of you is to stay flexible, and to to limber up. Because if there's a nuclear attack, we'll all need that flexibility to stretch our faces to our butts and kiss them goodbye. Thank you, congress, who collectively thinks we have no enemies in the world.

A "two pounds of bicycle frame, one pound cast iron, three pieces of washing machine steel, etc"..

LOL!!

 

[T56 Impala]

MAD is long gone. A Bolster pointed out, our weaponry is getting very, very old. Nearly all of the stuff my father helped test and install is still sitting in silos. Thats stuff from the 50's a and early 60's in case you don't know. Sure, some systems were upgraded as well as some of the actual warheads, but that stuff is from the 70's and 80's! Am I sad that both we and the Russians have old and out dated weapons? Heck no! I wish China, France, Iran, N. Korea and all the others had out dated stuff too. The world would be MUCH safer.

I have friends, who while in the military, had the "privilege" of actually launching an ICBM as part of a readiness test/treaty. (Un-armed of course!) Of the stories they told me about, which were few, only 2 actually fired when "the button" was pushed. (Actually it should be, "when the keys were turned") The rest had to have "some work done to them" before they would fire.

Our best bet for actually launching a reliable warhead would be from a submarine. The Georgia perhaps. Unfortunately, I doubt a sub would survive long enough to actually get a shot off. Foreign Technology has caught up to the fleet. They aren't as hidden as they once were.

Boy, this got WAY off topic didn't it! I wonder if there will be someone like me in the future. Someone who collects old military tools used to "save the world". I wonder if they will be American Iron or Chinese.

 

[FNFS2000]

Hmmmmmm, if my history lessons are correct, didn't Japan buy all the scrap metal they could from us in the years leading up to the Pearl Harbor attack? History going to repeat itself? They're rattling sabers over there now regarding the pending sale of military equipment to Taiwan.

Thats the doubling exports that Obombus promised in his State of the Union address... The only thing the gov really has any control over exports is weapons... So we are going to double export of taxpayer paid weapons, how is that going to help anything?

 

[sberry]

While they have a billion people they couldn't unload them off the ships fast enough to occupy this country. I got a bud with 200 guns and a hundred thousand rounds of ammo, with the amount of guns in this country we could kill them faster than they could get them here. A jeep full of soldiers couldn't make it down 2 miles of my road. My neighbor can shoot a running deer at 300 yards.

 

[X1 Mike]

While they have a billion people they couldn't unload them off the ships fast enough to occupy this country. I got a bud with 200 guns and a hundred thousand rounds of ammo, with the amount of guns in this country we could kill them faster than they could get them here. A jeep full of soldiers couldn't make it down 2 miles of my road. My neighbor can shoot a running deer at 300 yards.

Yeah but how many trigger fingers does he have.

 

[Bolster]

While they have a billion people they couldn't unload them off the ships fast enough to occupy this country. I got a bud with 200 guns and a hundred thousand rounds of ammo, with the amount of guns in this country we could kill them faster than they could get them here. A jeep full of soldiers couldn't make it down 2 miles of my road. My neighbor can shoot a running deer at 300 yards.

Oh well thank goodness, I feel better now. All you friend needs to do is to shoot one invading soldier every two seconds for the next 85 years, and not git killed himself in the process. Sounds easy.

PS: They hardly need to invade our country to irrevocably change our lives for the worse...we are a debtor nation, the Chinese basically own us. Stop thinking "defending the homeland" and start thinking "indentured servant." It's a more accurate picture of your future, Gwylo.

You don't just triple the debt of a nation and expect to skate on the payments, do ya? You may think you're just earning less, and paying higher taxes, but that money goes into interest payments written out to the people who finance our debt...the Chinese!

 

[chadster1]

Oh well thank goodness, I feel better now. All you friend needs to do is to shoot one invading soldier every two seconds for the next 85 years, and not git killed himself in the process. Sounds easy.

PS: They hardly need to invade our country to irrevocably change our lives for the worse...we are a debtor nation, the Chinese basically own us. Stop thinking "defending the homeland" and start thinking "indentured servant." It's a more accurate picture of your future, Gwylo.

You don't just triple the debt of a nation and expect to skate on the payments, do ya? You may think you're just earning less, and paying higher taxes, but that money goes into interest payments written out to the people who finance our debt...the Chinese!

Maybe we can get one of those debt settlement companies to call the Chinese and get them to settle our debt for pennies on the dollar.

 

[X1 Mike]

Maybe we can get one of those debt settlement companies to call the Chinese and get them to settle our debt for pennies on the dollar.

We've choosen to settle the debt another way. The U.S. has determined that China is a low threat for espionage.

Q: How do you pay off some U.S. debt?
A: Look the other way while Chinese intelligence agents steal military technology.

 

[nate379]

If you guys only knew....

MAD is long gone. A Bolster pointed out, our weaponry is getting very, very old. Nearly all of the stuff my father helped test and install is still sitting in silos. Thats stuff from the 50's a and early 60's in case you don't know. Sure, some systems were upgraded as well as some of the actual warheads, but that stuff is from the 70's and 80's! Am I sad that both we and the Russians have old and out dated weapons? Heck no! I wish China, France, Iran, N. Korea and all the others had out dated stuff too. The world would be MUCH safer.

I have friends, who while in the military, had the "privilege" of actually launching an ICBM as part of a readiness test/treaty. (Un-armed of course!) Of the stories they told me about, which were few, only 2 actually fired when "the button" was pushed. (Actually it should be, "when the keys were turned") The rest had to have "some work done to them" before they would fire.

Our best bet for actually launching a reliable warhead would be from a submarine. The Georgia perhaps. Unfortunately, I doubt a sub would survive long enough to actually get a shot off. Foreign Technology has caught up to the fleet. They aren't as hidden as they once were.

Boy, this got WAY off topic didn't it! I wonder if there will be someone like me in the future. Someone who collects old military tools used to "save the world". I wonder if they will be American Iron or Chinese.

 

[trythis]

Its not like all the other countries in in the world are suddenly 3rd world grovelling nations just because they aren't superpowers.
Each country has its thing it is known for. Denmarkesign, Germany: precision, France: wine, (and the statue of liberty). This can continue and be argued about, but you could take the point.
The question is what will the US be known for when it is not THE super power. The I-phone?

 

[FNFS2000]

Its not like all the other countries in in the world are suddenly 3rd world grovelling nations just because they aren't superpowers.
Each country has its thing it is known for. Denmarkesign, Germany: precision, France: wine, (and the statue of liberty). This can continue and be argued about, but you could take the point.
The question is what will the US be known for when it is not THE super power. The I-phone?

maybe if apple made them here.... We're more likely to be known as the idiots that didn't see history repeating...

 

[TAMPAGT07]

The question is what will the US be known for when it is not THE super power.

I second FNFS2000. It's Idiot's....

 

[Bolster]

maybe if apple made them here.... We're more likely to be known as the idiots that didn't see history repeating...

'Idiots' is the correct answer, you win.