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Military Grounds Stealth Bomber Fleet

Ponca City, We Love You writes "America's entire B-2 stealth bomber fleet, which has played a crucial part in all major US conflicts since 1989, has been grounded after one of the jets crashed near a military base in Guam. The crash — the first involving the B-2 — was the most expensive single aircraft accident in history. (The planes cost $1.2B each.) Officials assume the crash was caused by either mechanical failure or human error, but have grounded all B-2s to ensure there is not some fundamental fault developing in the 21-strong fleet. The crash occurred Saturday morning local time as the B-2 was taking off from Andersen Air Force base on Guam, a US territory south of Japan. An Air Force spokesman said, 'The cause of crash is unknown, pending an investigation. The pilots had ejected safely — no serious injuries. One is mobile, one is still in the hospital under observation.'"

8 of 430 comments (clear)

  1. Re:It's obvious! by hughesjr · · Score: 0, Troll

    I find it amazing that people are whining about military spending in the US. Especially people in Europe. When the next Hitler or Stalin comes, I doubt very seriously you will be whining about all that military spending when the B3 bombers and the American soldiers are again saving your homeland because your countries REFUSE to provide for their own common defense. How many times do we need to see this recur before it can pierce this whiny ideology.

  2. Re:Stealth? by rickb928 · · Score: 0, Troll

    Perhaps you should try being funny. Humor usually requires that.

    Or more plainly, funny to you ain't necssarily funny to anyone else. You should know that if you come here often.

    --
    deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
  3. Re:Stealth? by DrDitto · · Score: -1, Troll

    Actually, I believe you meant "This is not a good development for the US." The rest of us think being able to detect your stealth bombers is actually a good thing since it decreases the risk of your leaders deciding to "liberate" us for one reason or another (I'm in northern europe so this is unlikely but it is still nice to have some way of detecting possible threats).

    Where are you from? Europe? If it weren't for the U.S., you'd be living under a communist dictatorship since WWII. The U.S. is far from perfect, but it still is the military protector of democracy.

  4. Re:Stealth? by Romwell · · Score: -1, Troll

    How is the GP troll and the parent is not ? Please mod down everyone who combines the words "US", "democracy" and "protect" in one centence (whoops, I just did).

  5. Re:Stop talking out of your ass by Tezcat · · Score: 0, Troll

    There is a difference between "every ideology is equally true" and "every ideology is equally (morally) right". I follow enlightenment values and have a liberal political and social outlook. I morally disagree with the stoning of homosexuals, suicide bombings and the repression of women. The 'Postmodern' approach recognises that both of these value-systems are merely human constructions. It encourages people to not make judgements while analysing the system. Personal moral judgement is left to the individual.

  6. Re:Stop talking out of your ass by element-o.p. · · Score: -1, Troll

    At what point in the war? In the beginning of WWII, Russia was an axis power. It wasn't until later, when the USSR became afraid of Hitlers march north towards them that they decided maybe they'd be better off with the allies. At that point, they became, as you said, "a big part of it" but even then, they had U.S. aid.

    I've made three trips in small airplanes from the northwestern U.S. to Alaska. British Columbia, the Yukon Territory and Alaska are all dotted with really nice 5000+ foot long runways. Do you know why? Because after the USSR joined the allied powers, the U.S. built these airstrips and began shuttling fighter and bomber planes and pilots to the Russians to help them fight the Germans. I'm not saying the Russians couldn't have kicked Hitlers backside without these reinforcements, but they sure didn't decline the help.

    --
    MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?
  7. Re:Stealth? by DrDitto · · Score: -1, Troll

    I'm not claiming the U.S. saved Europe from Germany...yes, they would have lost anyways. But the iron curtain would have closed around must of western europe pretty quickly. Your beloved Churchhill agreed. I toured the museum in London and saw his dirty diapers and grade school report cards.

  8. Re:Huge Military Budget = Declining Empire by IntelligenceLite · · Score: 0, Troll

    Bull. First, the US is not an empire; it's a standard for freedom in the world. (At least it was before socialism took hold.) Second, military spending is not an economic burden. The largest black hole of gov't spending (and growing out of control) is entitlement programs--stealing money from productive people through punitive taxation and giving it to unproductive people. The US gov't wouldn't have any problem increasing military spending if it stuck to its job (protecting people, property, and liberty as the Founders intended) and got out of the business of robbing some citizens on behalf of other citizens.