Modern submarines don't use propellers, they use pump-jets.
but the steam plant makes noise
Diesel-electric subs like North Korea operates don't have steam plants. You are thinking of nuclear subs. A diesel boat running at low speeds on battery power is extremely difficult to detect even with modern sonar equipment. These difficulties would be compounded in the swallow waters of the Yellow Sea.
George Will mentioned a "base" in one of his columns that consisted of six Coast Guardsmen armed with a single shotgun for fending off wild animals. The men were assigned to some Caribbean country to train the locals -- but it still got counted as a "base" in most publications.
do you know that the current constitution of Afghanistan, enacted by the western-backed government, specifies Islam as a state religion, and Shari'a as the supreme law of the land, trumping any other law and article in the constitution?
I don't care if their constitution requires all adult citizens to murder a puppy once per week as long as they don't allow terrorist organizations that murder Americans to set up shop in their country.
Historically, every time Republicans deregulated a public service or utility
Except that the internet has never been regulated as either of those things. It got to where it is today because it wasn't regulated -- people were free to do whatever they wanted.
So. The standards of war are rewritten by whoever wins...
I don't disagree with you. I just find it absurd that we force our military to fight with one hand behind it's back. Our enemies aren't doing the same.
Read up on the fall of Carthage. The US did not go from house to house raping every woman we could find. The US did not sell 50,000 Afghans into slavery
You don't have to go back to Carthage to find examples of those things.....
They all believed them. Clinton made a habit out of bombing Iraq. The Iraqi Liberation Act was voted for by most Democrats in the House and all of them in the Senate.
Most of the World believed them too for that matter....
Britain controlled 25% of the land area and population of Planet Earth at one point in time. The Romans controlled less land but the same percentage of the population at their peak.
Yes, but the U.S. is the first country in the history of balance-of-power politics to think that the failure of its main enemy (the USSR) entitles it to something like control of the entire world, forever.
No it's not. Ever hear of Pax Britannia? Pax Romana?
The British and Roman empires were waging at least as many as we are, and were just as ruthless.
No, they were far more ruthless than we are. The Romans would have conquered Afghanistan a long time ago -- it's much easier to pacify a population when you are willing to kill anyone capable of offering resistance and sell the survivors into slavery.
We aren't even as ruthless as we were just sixty years ago. Read up on how we conducted ourselves in the Pacific War against Japan. They refused to abide by the laws of war and we responded in kind.
since in those three wars combined only one single attack was ever made on the US.
So the murder of American civilians traveling on noncombatant ships doesn't count as an attack on the US? Attempting to get one of America's neighbors to join an alliance against her doesn't count as a hostile act?
The US had ample provocation to enter WW1. Ditto for WW2. Ditto for Korea. Hell, the peaceniks here should have loved the way Korea went down -- authorized by and conducted under the auspices of the UN in response to aggression against one of it's members.
Slashdot Mirror
There's also the Panay incident.....
Even the most stealthy of submarines make noise as it passes through the water
That doesn't mean they can be detected though....
mostly from the propellor of course
Modern submarines don't use propellers, they use pump-jets.
but the steam plant makes noise
Diesel-electric subs like North Korea operates don't have steam plants. You are thinking of nuclear subs. A diesel boat running at low speeds on battery power is extremely difficult to detect even with modern sonar equipment. These difficulties would be compounded in the swallow waters of the Yellow Sea.
George Will mentioned a "base" in one of his columns that consisted of six Coast Guardsmen armed with a single shotgun for fending off wild animals. The men were assigned to some Caribbean country to train the locals -- but it still got counted as a "base" in most publications.
do you know that the current constitution of Afghanistan, enacted by the western-backed government, specifies Islam as a state religion, and Shari'a as the supreme law of the land, trumping any other law and article in the constitution?
I don't care if their constitution requires all adult citizens to murder a puppy once per week as long as they don't allow terrorist organizations that murder Americans to set up shop in their country.
Historically, every time Republicans deregulated a public service or utility
Except that the internet has never been regulated as either of those things. It got to where it is today because it wasn't regulated -- people were free to do whatever they wanted.
What business model?
Selling dimes for a nickel and making it up in volume?
can you find an instance of the United States Army laying siege and waiting for people to starve to death?
Vicksburg?
So. The standards of war are rewritten by whoever wins...
I don't disagree with you. I just find it absurd that we force our military to fight with one hand behind it's back. Our enemies aren't doing the same.
Read up on the fall of Carthage. The US did not go from house to house raping every woman we could find. The US did not sell 50,000 Afghans into slavery
You don't have to go back to Carthage to find examples of those things.....
You really don't have even a basic understanding of large-scale warfare against a populace
The war isn't against the populace, it's against the insurgents that refuse to accept the new order of things.
So what?
They all believed them. Clinton made a habit out of bombing Iraq. The Iraqi Liberation Act was voted for by most Democrats in the House and all of them in the Senate.
Most of the World believed them too for that matter....
Our weaponry and style of war is far more ruthless today than the Romans could've ever dreamed of
It doesn't get much more ruthless than hand to hand combat in the pre-firearms era. Here's your weapon. Have fun!
Britain controlled 25% of the land area and population of Planet Earth at one point in time. The Romans controlled less land but the same percentage of the population at their peak.
That the GDP of Afghanistan is ~13 billion.
By way of comparison the State of Vermont has a gross state product of $22 billion.....
The trouble is that 'destroying the country in order to save it' would be a little difficult to justify to American voters
Something tells me you could have sold it to the American voter on September 12th 2001.
The real way to fight a war of ideology is with ideology, not money or guns.
No, the real way to fight a war is to kill enough of the enemy that the remainder realizes the fight is not worth it.
Only because of the stupidity known as the War on Drugs. Legalize drugs tomorrow and those Afgan poppies would be nearly worthless.
If the UN had been around they could have written a strongly worded letter to Berlin and asked them very nicely to cease and desist.
big big difference. many (most?) of us never believed those liars and bush/co NEVER spoke for us.
Almost half of the Democrats in the House and more than half in the Senate believed them......
Yes, but the U.S. is the first country in the history of balance-of-power politics to think that the failure of its main enemy (the USSR) entitles it to something like control of the entire world, forever.
No it's not. Ever hear of Pax Britannia? Pax Romana?
Yeah, and look where it got them.
The British and Roman empires were waging at least as many as we are, and were just as ruthless.
No, they were far more ruthless than we are. The Romans would have conquered Afghanistan a long time ago -- it's much easier to pacify a population when you are willing to kill anyone capable of offering resistance and sell the survivors into slavery.
We aren't even as ruthless as we were just sixty years ago. Read up on how we conducted ourselves in the Pacific War against Japan. They refused to abide by the laws of war and we responded in kind.
since in those three wars combined only one single attack was ever made on the US.
So the murder of American civilians traveling on noncombatant ships doesn't count as an attack on the US? Attempting to get one of America's neighbors to join an alliance against her doesn't count as a hostile act?
The US had ample provocation to enter WW1. Ditto for WW2. Ditto for Korea. Hell, the peaceniks here should have loved the way Korea went down -- authorized by and conducted under the auspices of the UN in response to aggression against one of it's members.
This is reality, not the Federation of Planets. Get used to it.
Even the Federation seemed to average a small war every decade or so......