Thats what happened up here. Half the lifers I knew took the buyout (they were very generous), many of the others soon got dissallusioned when the rules suddenly changed as they creatively attempted to find ways to punt yer arse. That and that fn flake kretch's cutbacks in cash but escalation of foriegn committment. F'n gooof! I'm soooooooo happy the prick is gone!
Heres my point about the B-2's, a programm rife with pork barrel, which turned into massive cash cow with years and hundreds of millions of dollars of overruns. And after all that development, it comes to pass, its no better then a B-52 and the money was virtually wasted when the Soviet Union, the purpose behind its conception, gave up and joined the rest of the world. Secondly, technology in a wide variety of weapons have advanced beyond the ablities the B2 brings to the table and has rendered its unique capabilities comparable to those of the last batch of B-52's. For example, the incredible direction drone technology has taken, unmanned aircraft capable of loitering for hours upon hours at a time above the target and providing a ten figure grid reference or a laser track upon any holtile in the area... No need for a multibillion dollar B2 or B1 to engage the target when munitions costing a fraction of the price will do? Let us not forget the mission, DA, its a heavy bomber designed to facilitate long range WW2 style missions but, it can only carry so much ordinace and its aim is no better then a cruise missile when launching based on GPS or laser point. Nor can it loiter indefintiely without fuel replenishment, not after flying from the US to wherever. It wont be used on targets ala the F117, which brings up the third reason for dropping the project. The F117 stealth bomber has proven more then capable of fulfilling the role of stealth recon and attack, certainly we have seen during the past decade that a nations air defense systems are virtually defensless against the concentrated efforts by these remarkable aircraft and, as such, any large scale ariel bombing, again as demonstrated by GW1, Afghanistan and GW2, can be undertaken by the current fleet of B-52's with impunity. Why spend a k'billion dollars only to find out an aircraft constructed in the fifties and modified a dozen times can do the job just as well? Send in the b-52's. They are still effective, are in service and considering the area neutralization factor, are more then effective. Whoooo, ask the repuiblican Guards, dude! Or those bastards dug in along the slopes of Tora Bora. snicker.
I dont think the Pershings had anything to do with it, DA. The Russians only freaked when Ronny went spacial, the threat of space based munitions and the reality of America's electronic mastery and ability in space when compared to the Russians efforts... And the times, of course. I truly believe that wall was going to come down sooner rather then later, that the commies influence throughout he Warsaw Pact and in Russia had plumetted and, after forty years, democracy would rpevail. My sister in law was in Berlin going to university at the time, she has some great stories, dude.
I mention clarke only cause he was in Toronto last week for some security conference and there were a couple of news blurbs about him. YOu may be surprised to find that he and you agree about Canada's defense, almost to a tee. Go figure.
You know how I feel about getting fycked over for decades, so i won't belabor the point.
Volunteer forces are much better then conscript armies, I agree. Unfortunately, what choice to you have? Let us use the sixty combat brigade number, a number, i suggest after witnessing the requirements of Iraq and Afghanistan and any further attacks in the quest for bin laden (read iran) I would say you'n need about ten more. NO way current recruitment is going to fill those requirements, not with atrician rising and the numbers of today will be lucky to fullfill todays requirements, let alone tommorows. And what about homeland security???? Half the Gurad is overseas. Not enough people are stepping to the plate, dude. Its as simple ats that. This is war, bin laden and the hydra headed organization Bush's lack of attention has lallowed AQ to evolve into will be comming after you for decades, man, specially now that Bush has pissed them off about palestine, the underlying root of all islamofacist terrorism and the occupation in iraqw hss become a rallying call for every fycked up, martydom beleiving flake in the middle east.
I'm not being foolish, dude, IM being realistic. The rest of the world wants to assist iraqis, they just dont want to be associated with the Bush administration or an occupation they deem illegimate. They undertsand the risks failure entail, one only has to listen to them prattle on... NPR... snicker. But they will not support GW Bush cause Bush fycked them over on the international stage, belittled them and the people they represent in front the UN and now, because of the post war failures (also forecasted but ignored by the neoconpoops) in iraq and the fact that, and this is important everywhere but in America, after all the rhetoric from the administration, the show yer cards bravado crap, there are no weapons of mass destruction or links to AQ....
Realistically, it will be a cold day in hell before any f'n one of em steps up to the plate.
As long as Bush is driving the bus.
Thats the reason yer alone in Iraq. Not cause they were fycking you over, DA, but cause you fycked them over. Bush is the obstruction, the divider. Even the iraqis think so. Check out todays polls if you want to see the defintion of a failed policy. There posted at USA today.
Tanker, eh? Ever do the reforgers over in Europe? Woooooooo, they were good times, brother, I was mech infantry for 8 years over there, one of the battlions fire controllers. Used to train up in graf and hohenfels alot, tanker country, eh?
PS whats the oil scam got to do with the situation in Iraq and the assistance America clearly needs. Nothing, dude. Just graft, nothing suprising there, not to me anyways. Hardly unique, eh? And let us not forget, there were many Americans getting there slice of the pie, Haliburton for one. Hopefully, this will make us stronger, the investigation will CLEAN up the graft within the UN.