Slashdot Mirror
Sixty Years On, B-52s Are Still Going Strong
Hugh Pickens writes "Those who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s knew the B-52 Stratofortress as a central figure in the anxiety that flowed from the protracted staring match between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Now CNET reports that it was 60 years ago, on April 15, 1952, that a B-52 prototype built by Boeing took off on its maiden flight and although the 1950s-vintage B-52s are no longer in the US Air Force inventory, the 90 or so H models delivered between May 1961 and October 1962 still remain on active duty. 'The B-52 has been a wonderful flying box,' says retired Brig. Gen. Peyton Cole. 'It's persevered all these years because it's been able to adapt and still continues to fly. It started out as a high-level flying platform during the Cold War. Then as air defenses got better it became a low-level penetrator, and more than that was the first aircraft to fly low-level at night through FLIR (forward looking infrared) and night-vision TV.' The B-52's feat of longevity reflects both regular maintenance and timely upgrades — in the late 1980s, for instance, GPS capabilities were incorporated into the navigation system but it also speaks to the astronomical costs of the next-generation bombers that have followed the B-52 into service (a total of 744 were built, counting all models) with the Air Force. B-52s cost about $70 million apiece (in today's dollars), while the later, stealth-shaped B-2 Spirit bombers carried an 'eye-watering $3-billion-a-pop unit price.' The Air Force's 30-year forecast, published in March, envisions an enduring role for the B-52 and engineering studies, the Air Force says, suggest that the life span of the B-52 could extend beyond the year 2040. 'At that point, why not aim for the centennial mark?'"
is not something to celebrate
13. And he does great wonders, so that he makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
...that in Soviet Rusia or Hitler's Germany or Imperial Japan or Juche North Korea, people thought/think that it's the West who are the bunch of immoral murderers and that it is therefore necessary to arm to strongly defend and to occasionally make pre-emptive strikes.
And when you see those men jumping from the WTC building and are rightly saddened by the loss of life, remember that bombing raids by America have produced such deaths a hundred times over across the globe - of men, women and children, while wearing a military uniform, in a business suit, or just shooting the breeze in the wrong place at the wrong time.
It's true that, today, America is the military superpower.
It's true that, today, America has the most powerful propaganda machine. Your media displays the abuses of your enemies, the suffering of your enemies' civilians under its own government, and the glorious quality of life of the well-heeled on your own shores. (Your enemies' media will be full of your abuses, show the poor and destitute of America, and depict the glorious quality of life of the well-heeled on their own shores.)
Probably you've been convinced that you're just and moral. Likely, as some of your enemies, you will speak in terms of a religious or quasi-religious body, such as "Jesus" or "the free market". But all that matters is whether your words and actions, direct or indirect, promote or cause suffering.