America needs another Cold War.

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You know what I just realized? We need another Cold War. Historically, America has always done well when confronted with a threat, be it the British during the American Revolution, the Nazis and Japanese during WWII, or the Soviets during the Cold War. They say "necessity is the mother of all invention." Well, I respectfully disagree with that. I believe competition is the mother of invention. The desire to do better than someone, something, or oneself has always been a motivator for us. I hope China and the US get into a Cold War, because that will bring a lot of manufacturing jobs back here because the public will feel compelled to fight this threat. The reason our Congress is so polarized right now is because of the lack of something else to fight. When we have nothing to fight, we turn on each other. If there has ever been one true unifying force in all human history, it is that of a common enemy

A cold war between China and US would just stall the economic development in both countries. The reason why THE cold war brought the USSR to it's knees, was that the USSR economic model was doomed from the start. Furthermore, China does not posess a threat to any foreign countries the way the USSR did.

It would be fun to see Sylvester Stallone fight a huge Chinese guy in Rocky VII, though.

They need to create some fake space aliens to attack earth. Not only would Americans unite, but the whole world would rally behind the USA to protect them from the fake alien space invaders.

Bad News: They already started a trade war with us, and we lost. I don't know how you expect the American public to "fight" Globalism. Until China loses most of their workforce to Super-Cancer in the next couple of decades, our manufacturing sector is dead in the water. The reason politicians aren't talking about China's role in our economic downfall is because there's no solution, and Americans can't be allowed to know how doomed they are.

...and hopefully, the right side will win the next cold war.

As far as I'm concerned Russia is still at least a strong potential threat. If not right now then in sometime in the future.

We do have the Forever War. Doesn't that count?

It would also be an excuse for the government to continue eroding our rights...
We could bring back manufacturing jobs by not outsourcing everything. And perhaps stimulate innovation by reworking some things in our patent system.

And yes, it may unify Congress/the people against a common enemy, but all issues outside of the conflict would be put on the back burner. The only things that would get solved are problems we don't currently have. And again, emotional/illogical responses to a threat would come into play and stuff like the Patriot Act could get passed.

Yes. Youd think that the "war on terrorism" would be the modern equivalent to the Cold War.

So OP..isnt the open ended "war on terrorism" good enough for you?

Any war results in a loss of life. I'd rather we not lose our people in a conflict if it's not absolutely necessary. ISR and maintaining military readiness are important IMO, but if we can avoid another war (whether it's "cold" or not) in the near future, that would be fabulous.

And yes, the Cold War actually resulted in quite a few lost lives. They just weren't widely publicized.

The war on terror isn't good enough because the terrorists don't really pose any threat. We need another country that has comparable size and strength to America as an adversary. We may not even need another war, but we need that atmosphere of rivalry.

OMFG, you have GOT to kidding!

NO, not one bit, we do not need another cold war.

The US actually did so well during the cold war, not because of the cold war, but because all the rest of the economic competition was bombed to smithereens in WWII. Once other countries starting rebuilding enough to compete, then the US economy started to falter. All the cold war did was make the wrong people very rich, and give them far too much power and influence. Former President Eisenhower was not kidding around when he warned America about the military industrial complex. But the people didn't listen to him and now look at the mess we have.

That is just a completely insane idea.
Learn a little more about history, not just the propaganda taught in school, but do your own investigation.
Then get back to us.

the war on terrorism is more of a civil war than anything else. That's why it is reducing our productivity rather than increasing it. At all levels the war on terror reduces the American public's ability and desire to invest time and energy. The government views all citizens as a potential threat, rather than assets. Businesses are afraid to invest because of the threat of terrorism etc etc. Aside from that we are investing massive amounts of resources intentionally weakening our own security systems to leave back doors for the NSA which are causing frequent data thefts among American corporations.

You just caused every American on WP to scream at the computer "but the terrorists killed 3000 of us in one day in 2011! So how can you say that they are 'no threat to us'?"

**** no. The Cold War was awful, our very existence hung on the whims of two men at any given time for 46 year and we were very lucky that their better judgement won out.

The whole "environmental movement" was an effort to accomplish just that.

If we aren't throwing away a given percentage of our GNP on nothing (Cold War consumed a lot of resources but produced no real end product), the economy will implode. The "war" to save the environment was a way to do just that.

They could have started another Cold War, but that carried the risk of it spinning out of control and becoming an actual war they couldn't control.