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Is it possible that US doesn't have as great of a manufacturing indusrty as China, thus in a war between the US and China, the US would be at a disadvantage in the long term in terms of the sheer number of aircraft, tanks and war ships produced? Similar to the Japaneese during WWII.

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Not when it comes to weapons. The US makes more arms than any other country and is the biggest exporter. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arms_industry#World.27s_largest...)

One of the reasons the US congress can't cut its military budget is because the US actually produces a lot of arms across the country. The joke is that an ideal defense project will have at least one job in every congressional district.

Don't worry about the disadvantage in manpower and industrial capacity, military technology has advanced a great deal since WWII.

I'm sure the majority of military planners are bright enough to have a nagging suspicion, somewhere in the back of their heads, that an open war between China and the US would be over in a matter of hours.

An open war between China and the US would not happen. Killing your customers is exceedingly bad for business.

Given the prospect of it going nuclear, I vote "killing half the planet is exceedingly bad for business as well"

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