But going by the Twilight 2000 timeline, circa 2000 the US is involved in a three way civil war, with two rival claimants to "legitimate" government and New America intent on revolutionary take over. National cohesion is pretty good with a full belly, but the 90's LA riots and Hurricane Katrina call into question how far it floats when things get really red in tooth and claw.
Even with that significant surplus of would be government, huge portions of the nation are in complete anarchy, or under the control of warlords not beholden to any of the three factions, or have some semblance of intact society but have opted to close their borders to outsiders (to include their fellow Americans), i.e. Rhode Island, upper peninsula Michigan, and (MilGov loyalist lip service aside) Utah.
In terms of the playing in the professional Nation-State league, the United States circa 2000 is very charitably "in a rebuilding year." No bowl games likely, and don't look for them to do to well in league play against Mexico any time soon.
CENTCOM is in a tough situation. When the US forces leave, US votes as to how the oil gets distributed go away with the troops. The maximum effective range of an owed favor is about zero meters in geopolitics, and probably less than that in Middle Eastern cultures.
Even if MilGov can pull the remnants of CENTCOM back to the US, they get the same problem they have with bringing back US forces from Europe -- with a domestic economy that can't even reliably cover subsistence agriculture and a domestic security situation that can't even reliably guarantee lines of communication . . . there's just no way MilGov, CivGov, or anyone else is in a position to go on the offensive against Mexico in 2000. Once the US puts its house in order and MilGov/CivGov reconcile or one smashes the other or whatever, maybe then they can turn their attentions to combat operations against Mexico but that's not the summer of 2000. Or 2001. Maybe 2010.
Quote:
|
Thats why I discount the 2300AD world totally - sorry but there is no way the US lets Mexico keep LA, San Diego and half the Southwest.
|
Unless Mexico becomes a nuclear power before the US has the ability to force them back out (technically -- unless one of the rival governments in Mexico's own civil war becomes a nuclear power and threatens their use to maintain war gains). May seem far fetched to our usual stereotypical view of Mexico, but they have a reactor and if it survived the war relatively intact a weapons program is not unreasonable given ongoing/pending conflict with the US.
In a scenario where Mexico has nuclear weapons and the US has nuclear weapons in, say, 2010-2020 I doubt anyone has any enthusiasm for initiating another nuclear exchange to get Texas and SoCal back. In a scenario of potential nuclear exchange, I would venture to guess France might threaten its own nuclear arsenal against either nation if they're the aggressor as well.
Such is the nature of life when you're not at the top, and the Twilight War definitely didn't leave the US at the top of the pile.