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Agiel

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Were I Putin, I would keep the fact that Vladivostok used to be a part of what was called Outer Manchuria very much in mind.

 

Edited by Agiel
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“Political philosophers have often pointed out that in wartime, the citizen, the male citizen at least, loses one of his most basic rights, his right to life; and this has been true ever since the French Revolution and the invention of conscription, now an almost universally accepted principle. But these same philosophers have rarely noted that the citizen in question simultaneously loses another right, one just as basic and perhaps even more vital for his conception of himself as a civilized human being: the right not to kill.”
 
-Jonathan Littell <<Les Bienveillantes>>
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"The chancellor, the late chancellor, was only partly correct. He was obsolete. But so is the State, the entity he worshipped. Any state, entity, or ideology becomes obsolete when it stockpiles the wrong weapons: when it captures territories, but not minds; when it enslaves millions, but convinces nobody. When it is naked, yet puts on armor and calls it faith, while in the Eyes of God it has no faith at all. Any state, any entity, any ideology that fails to recognize the worth, the dignity, the rights of Man...that state is obsolete."

-Rod Serling

 

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“Political philosophers have often pointed out that in wartime, the citizen, the male citizen at least, loses one of his most basic rights, his right to life; and this has been true ever since the French Revolution and the invention of conscription, now an almost universally accepted principle. But these same philosophers have rarely noted that the citizen in question simultaneously loses another right, one just as basic and perhaps even more vital for his conception of himself as a civilized human being: the right not to kill.”
 
-Jonathan Littell <<Les Bienveillantes>>
Quote

"The chancellor, the late chancellor, was only partly correct. He was obsolete. But so is the State, the entity he worshipped. Any state, entity, or ideology becomes obsolete when it stockpiles the wrong weapons: when it captures territories, but not minds; when it enslaves millions, but convinces nobody. When it is naked, yet puts on armor and calls it faith, while in the Eyes of God it has no faith at all. Any state, any entity, any ideology that fails to recognize the worth, the dignity, the rights of Man...that state is obsolete."

-Rod Serling

 

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Not sure that attributing made up stories to him is a great tribute, Mr Tucker.

 

(That story is apocryphal and usually attributed to a random Polish or South African or Scottish pilot due to their accent making mishearing Fokker more believable. In the more well though through versions they even use Focke (Wulf) since they were actually used by the germans in WW2, or have it be a WW1 pilot's story instead. Of course in this case the fighter FW-190 was used only after Bader was shot down anyway, so it was 100% bf)

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“Political philosophers have often pointed out that in wartime, the citizen, the male citizen at least, loses one of his most basic rights, his right to life; and this has been true ever since the French Revolution and the invention of conscription, now an almost universally accepted principle. But these same philosophers have rarely noted that the citizen in question simultaneously loses another right, one just as basic and perhaps even more vital for his conception of himself as a civilized human being: the right not to kill.”
 
-Jonathan Littell <<Les Bienveillantes>>
Quote

"The chancellor, the late chancellor, was only partly correct. He was obsolete. But so is the State, the entity he worshipped. Any state, entity, or ideology becomes obsolete when it stockpiles the wrong weapons: when it captures territories, but not minds; when it enslaves millions, but convinces nobody. When it is naked, yet puts on armor and calls it faith, while in the Eyes of God it has no faith at all. Any state, any entity, any ideology that fails to recognize the worth, the dignity, the rights of Man...that state is obsolete."

-Rod Serling

 

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Edited by Agiel
Quote
“Political philosophers have often pointed out that in wartime, the citizen, the male citizen at least, loses one of his most basic rights, his right to life; and this has been true ever since the French Revolution and the invention of conscription, now an almost universally accepted principle. But these same philosophers have rarely noted that the citizen in question simultaneously loses another right, one just as basic and perhaps even more vital for his conception of himself as a civilized human being: the right not to kill.”
 
-Jonathan Littell <<Les Bienveillantes>>
Quote

"The chancellor, the late chancellor, was only partly correct. He was obsolete. But so is the State, the entity he worshipped. Any state, entity, or ideology becomes obsolete when it stockpiles the wrong weapons: when it captures territories, but not minds; when it enslaves millions, but convinces nobody. When it is naked, yet puts on armor and calls it faith, while in the Eyes of God it has no faith at all. Any state, any entity, any ideology that fails to recognize the worth, the dignity, the rights of Man...that state is obsolete."

-Rod Serling

 

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The finally...

 

PuiAXX1.png

Edited by Agiel
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“Political philosophers have often pointed out that in wartime, the citizen, the male citizen at least, loses one of his most basic rights, his right to life; and this has been true ever since the French Revolution and the invention of conscription, now an almost universally accepted principle. But these same philosophers have rarely noted that the citizen in question simultaneously loses another right, one just as basic and perhaps even more vital for his conception of himself as a civilized human being: the right not to kill.”
 
-Jonathan Littell <<Les Bienveillantes>>
Quote

"The chancellor, the late chancellor, was only partly correct. He was obsolete. But so is the State, the entity he worshipped. Any state, entity, or ideology becomes obsolete when it stockpiles the wrong weapons: when it captures territories, but not minds; when it enslaves millions, but convinces nobody. When it is naked, yet puts on armor and calls it faith, while in the Eyes of God it has no faith at all. Any state, any entity, any ideology that fails to recognize the worth, the dignity, the rights of Man...that state is obsolete."

-Rod Serling

 

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Sweden seeks to buy $1 billion U.S. Patriot air defense missile system

by Johannes Hellstrom, Mike Stone

 

STOCKHOLM/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sweden will start negotiations on a $1.2 billion Raytheon Co Patriot air defense missile system, as interest in missile defense systems strengthens amid heightened regional tensions and ballistic missile technology improves globally.

 

The Swedish government said on Tuesday negotiations with the U.S. company will target delivery beginning in 2020, and for the system to be operational by 2025 at the latest.
 
Iran, North Korea and Russia, among others, have made advancements in their missile technology.
 
Raytheon said, “Sweden’s announcement brings them closer to joining the growing group of European nations depending on the combat-proven Patriot to defend against ballistic and cruise missiles, and advanced aircraft and drones.”
 
The Swedish government said, “based on this tender and the decision of the Riksdag (the Swedish Parliament) on the proposal to acquire a new medium-range air defense system in the 2018 budget bill, the government will make a final decision on the acquisition during 2018.”
 
Lockheed Martin Corp, the Pentagon’s No. 1 weapons supplier, said in August its customers want to defend themselves against possible incoming missile attacks and are increasingly asking about missile defense systems.
 
Raytheon has built more than 220 Patriot fire units and delivered them to customers in 13 nations including The Netherlands and Germany.
 
The Swedish Defense Materiel Administration (FMV) has been authorized to send a L\letter of request to the United States, and to enter into negotiations for procurement of the Patriot system.
 
The contract value is estimated to exceed 10 billion Swedish crowns ($1.2 billion), FMV said in a statement.
 
U.S. soldiers and German airmen fired the first of dozens of live Patriot and Stinger missiles on Monday as part of an exercise at a NATO base in Crete aimed at strengthening the response to possible attacks from Russia or other countries.
 
The exercise, which continues through Thursday on the Greek island, will include a series of emerging “real world threats” such as the use of drones, electronic warfare and electromagnetic pulses, U.S. Army Colonel David Shank, commander of the 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command, told Reuters.
 
The exercises come amid a big push by the United States, Germany and other NATO members to rebuild short-range air defense systems after the shock of Russia’s annexation of the Crimea region of Ukraine and its support of separatists in the Donbass region of Ukraine.
 
 
Of note that this is the first serious ground-based air-defence acquisition by Sweden in close to half a century.
Edited by Agiel
Quote
“Political philosophers have often pointed out that in wartime, the citizen, the male citizen at least, loses one of his most basic rights, his right to life; and this has been true ever since the French Revolution and the invention of conscription, now an almost universally accepted principle. But these same philosophers have rarely noted that the citizen in question simultaneously loses another right, one just as basic and perhaps even more vital for his conception of himself as a civilized human being: the right not to kill.”
 
-Jonathan Littell <<Les Bienveillantes>>
Quote

"The chancellor, the late chancellor, was only partly correct. He was obsolete. But so is the State, the entity he worshipped. Any state, entity, or ideology becomes obsolete when it stockpiles the wrong weapons: when it captures territories, but not minds; when it enslaves millions, but convinces nobody. When it is naked, yet puts on armor and calls it faith, while in the Eyes of God it has no faith at all. Any state, any entity, any ideology that fails to recognize the worth, the dignity, the rights of Man...that state is obsolete."

-Rod Serling

 

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One that's semi-military related..

 

NY Times - Love's Road Home

 

 


Ashley Volk waited for Sam Siatta to return from Afghanistan. She couldn’t have seen the detours ahead. But “she kept on fighting, for him and for them.”

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"Cuius testiculos habeas, habeas cardia et cerebellum."

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DQVWeWSUQAAkKQ2.jpg

 

A Thanksgiving joke I heard was that the genesis of the F-35 was an F-16 that had a few too many helpings (AESA radar, integrated EOTS pod, DAS, added internal fuel capacity, and the like) and "Uncle Raptor gave a few tips on how to make the most out of the new body (internal weapons bay, stealth coating etc.)"

Edited by Agiel
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“Political philosophers have often pointed out that in wartime, the citizen, the male citizen at least, loses one of his most basic rights, his right to life; and this has been true ever since the French Revolution and the invention of conscription, now an almost universally accepted principle. But these same philosophers have rarely noted that the citizen in question simultaneously loses another right, one just as basic and perhaps even more vital for his conception of himself as a civilized human being: the right not to kill.”
 
-Jonathan Littell <<Les Bienveillantes>>
Quote

"The chancellor, the late chancellor, was only partly correct. He was obsolete. But so is the State, the entity he worshipped. Any state, entity, or ideology becomes obsolete when it stockpiles the wrong weapons: when it captures territories, but not minds; when it enslaves millions, but convinces nobody. When it is naked, yet puts on armor and calls it faith, while in the Eyes of God it has no faith at all. Any state, any entity, any ideology that fails to recognize the worth, the dignity, the rights of Man...that state is obsolete."

-Rod Serling

 

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F-16 really is a pretty plane

Why has elegance found so little following? Elegance has the disadvantage that hard work is needed to achieve it and a good education to appreciate it. - Edsger Wybe Dijkstra

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Dude, Where's my Troops?

 

 


Stars and Stripes

 

Report: 44,000 ‘unknown’ military personnel stationed around the world

 

WASHINGTON — The U. S. military has more than 44,000 troops across the globe that the Pentagon claims it cannot track, according to a recent report.
“We are not at a point where we can give numbers other than those officially stated,” said Army Col. Rob Manning, a Pentagon spokesman.
The report — compiled by the Defense Manpower Data Center under the Office of the Secretary of Defense — shows more than 44,000 personnel in a category labeled “Unknown.”

 

Active-duty military personnel number slightly more than 1.3 million in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force, and hundreds of thousands more civilian personnel fall under Defense departments. That number does not include Reserve and National Guard formations that might be active at any particular time.
The United States has military personnel in nearly every country in the world, ranging from two liaison officers in Fiji to tens of thousands from all of the service branches in Japan and Germany, according to the report.

 

Manning said during a press briefing Wednesday that troop numbers in Syria are about four times higher than reported by the Pentagon, with 2,000 present in the country. He also clarified that there are 5,200 in Iraq, up from about 5,000 reported earlier.

“We seek to balance informing the American public with the imperative of operational security and denying the enemy any advantage,” Manning said at the briefing.

 

The Pentagon’s previous number of troops in Syria was 503. Though the additional 1,500 acknowledged Wednesday is small compared to the size of DOD manpower -- over 246,000 in California alone according to the data center -- such discrepancies could help explain why 44,000 are unaccounted for.

Edited by Raithe

"Cuius testiculos habeas, habeas cardia et cerebellum."

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Remember all those 'ghost troops' Iraq ended up with? While I'm sure some would show up as 'untrackable' due to bureaucratic inefficiency and errors, the Pentagon really doesn't want to end up ordering something somewhere, only to find out it doesn't actually exist.

 

I doubt theres any actual misdeeds like the corruption which led to Iraqs problem, the article mentions discrepancies that could show up in the math as a whole bunch of extra unknowns.

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The missing US troops pretty much certainly exist though. To be fair to Iraq, most of its phantom troops existed at one point but deserted piecemeal due to their COs pocketing their wages (some of those COs have been sentenced to death as well for their corruption).

 

I'd suspect the Pentagon knows where most of the 'missing' troops are but they're not politically expedient to acknowledge. eg it was obvious that the Syria deployment had more than 500 troops (I suspect it's more than 3000 and maybe even more than 4000 rather than 2000) but that deployment has a number of difficulties associated with it where minimising troop numbers is an advantage. If nothing else you wouldn't want Iran to know how many men were there, let alone Turkey being peeved, potential complaints from home and the rather sketchy international legality of any troops at all being there.

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Hmmmm.... flying aircraft carriers. http://www.nasdaq.com/article/air-force-could-test-flying-aircraft-carriers-as-early-as-next-year-cm898778

 

 

Would that make them Battlestars?

"While it is true you learn with age, the down side is what you often learn is what a damn fool you were before"

Thomas Sowell

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Hmmmm.... flying aircraft carriers. http://www.nasdaq.com/article/air-force-could-test-flying-aircraft-carriers-as-early-as-next-year-cm898778

 

 

Would that make them Battlestars?

 

So, basically a drone mothership rather than flying aircraft carrier. Definetly a cool concept and someone is bound to hit on the idea sooner or later.

 

The article does mention a possible advanced concept of an aircraft carrier launched (drone?) plane which acts as a mothership for the smaller ones.

Edited by smjjames
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