Trump fulfilled one campaign pledge. He said he was going to bomb the hell out
sharkhunter
I can imagine survivors saying that was a big one.
Reminds me of some alien big movie Storm ship troopers or something.
ISIS is like the bugs.
More talk about getting some agreements on tax cuts would be good right now.
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Putting in perspective, MOAB releases 1000x less energy than smallest nuke used on Hiroshima. And modern nukes are still another 100x more destructive than Hiroshima.
http://insider.foxnews.com/2017/04/13/tu…
And no, I'm not kidding, you really do need counseling and medication for your issues. Denial ain't just a river in Egypt.
And there's no revolt against Trump among his followers. Thats just a liberal fantasy.
There's about 1,500 ISIS combatants total in Afghanistan. That low number is due to the fact that the Taliban (25,000 combatants in Afghanistan) has been very effective in killing them off in a violent turf war.
ISIS in Afghanistan has been struggling for relevance and members, and they are losing that struggle. The reason why they are living in caves and not in villages is because they aren't safe from Taliban attacks out in the open.
So, it appears that we spent $16 million to kill 36 guys that the Taliban would have killed at a much lower price point.
But it does create good optics for Trump supporters. So... there's that.
Keep in mind that because of their expense and limited utility, there's only 26 MOABs (well, 25 now).
Perhaps they were trying to send a message more than how many ISIS would be killed?
The other possibility is that the Afghanistan mission was a dress rehearsal in advance of targeting hardened underground nuclear missile sites in North Korea. Because those are the type of targets that the MOAB was actually designed to address, both in terms of weapon design and weapon expense.
SJG
SJG
It was like that in Vietnam too, huge cost per enemy combatant killed. That bomb is for special purposes only.
But the solution is mostly political and economic. Using large scale force does not help.
SJG
Jeff Healey - All Along The Watchtower
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-auxhDl…
SJG
I think everyone but the murdering dictator in North Korea is a bit nervous what Trump is up to. I'd rather China put some heavy pressure on NK to suspend their nuclear program or else cut off food and trade. It would be like a castle siege. I don't believe the North Korean dictator is rational. Hmmm, Trump might understand him.
And also, via a large transport plane they can get something like that over their fairly quickly.
After all, Trump does not care at all about how much money he spends. It is all just theater.
SJG
All just theater, not military gain because the enemy is not a real military, and so their are no fronts and their side gains as much from this as Trump does.
SJG
I think we need super weapons we could deploy to shoot down all missiles launched from NK and huge solar mirrors that could open up in space and make the entire country in NK directly north of the border hot enough to fry any exposed skin of marching solders and overheat NK military vehicles even at night. In peacetime the platform could be used for solar power or lighting up cities at night, not hot, just light, for a charge for special events. Anyone want parades, football games, baseball games with full sunlight in the evening?
SJG
Obama said he wasn't going to build the Death Star though. Trump can talk about building something smaller and call it the mother of all space ships. It needs Shields like the aliens have in the movies or like the shields in Stargate SG1 when they had advanced Asgard tech. Then we could act like the big bad ass aliens raining destructive pulses down on NK until they surrender. Of course we don't have any of this stuff so Trump is asking for trouble if he attacks. I'd prefer to wait and build better tech. Trump is a businessman so we can hope all this talk is tough talk to get NK and China to make deals.
Using fuel to hover?
In geosynchronous orbit? 22,000 miles up or something like that?
And shields, how does that work?
And don't you think that many countries would find this provocative and destabilizing to even attempt?
You know, the reason why the Space Shuttle was such a disappointment is that it was designed from the start to serve a covert purpose. The design going back to the 50's, it was designed to be able to take a load of nuclear weapons up, and to stay up there a while, and then to bring them back down.
That capability of bringing large things back down completely screwed up the entire design. The orbiter had to be large, pushing tire and aviation technology to the limit, and then placing extreme demands on those heat shield tiles, and requiring those extremely dangerous solid fuel boosters.
That capability was used once and once only, a telecommunications satellite brought back down for renovation, and then brought back up. But in no way did that justify the cost. As it stands now, there is nothing worth that cost of the bring down capability except human life.
But because of this thinly veiled space weapons capability, that entire Space Shuttle program was a huge disappointment in all ways.
SJG
And I agree that for right now, mostly, diplomacy is our best choice. I only wish our President understood this.
SJG
If NK is ok with the status quo, so am I. Everyone is wondering what Trump is ok with.
No, actually, it isn't. And I'm not saying that out of disdain for American lives. Exactly the opposite, in truth.
At $16 million for 36 kills, we basically bought 36 bullets at over $440,000 each. And, we used those very expensive bullets to kill 36 guys who are already in the Taliban's cross-hairs. Meaning, I have milk in my fridge that hads a longer expiration date than many of those guys.
Meanwhile in Iraq and Syria, American and allied forces are struggling with a new phenomenon: ISIS drones. ISIS is purchasing commercial off-the-shelf drones and outfitting them for both surveillance and to drop IEDs on friendly forces (including Americans). These drones are effective from up to 2 kilometers away, and they can fly high enough where people on the ground can't hear or easily see them. Also, we can't electronically jam them without also jamming friendly communication networks.
Ask an American soldier who has had an improvised bomb dropped dropped on his HQ whether or not he thinks we should have used $16 million to buy 36 very expensive bullets, or if we should put $16 million toward preventing ISIS drone attacks.
If the MOAB's deployment in Afghanistan wasn't a dry run for a mission-in-planning in North Korea, then Trump is an asshole. Honestly, I'm almost hoping that Trump is an asshole.
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ROFL! @Ishmael's talking common sense, here, @Tx. Trump LDKs every time we deploy one of these big weapons, and it's all one big publicity stunt after another. Anyway, @Ishmael has the best handle of anyone on TUSCL.
Good article for you, @Tx:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/trum…
:)
SJG