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It is prudent to be aware of what the other guy might do to you, otherwise you tend to get surprised. Being surprised is bad. Deterrence is about what the other guy is pretty sure you can do to...

Good point about the various air routes. It is an intrinsic part of our way of working which is one reason I think those big planes are so critical.

You reminded me of something. We don't have...

Not at all. In fact that is what drives my opinion. Two of the things that make for a believable deterrent are having the tools and having the other guy believe that you will indeed use them if...

I like this combined with what Slap said about Wilson. A political philosophy has developed that sees "good government" as trumping the strictures of the founding documents. The problem of course...

WM:

That is a first class map. Nowadays you would have to add routes to and from Japan and Taiwan.

Why would an airborne missileer type airplane not be able to use cueing from ground based...

Or it is a good reason to name the first chapter of a history of some possible future, hopefully never fought, war "How we lost before it started."



You're right. Why, I hadn't thought of...

WM:

That's not a half bad idea. Both it and my terrible idea depend on the capability being built into the weapon and having a lot of shots available. That is one of the things I believe ADM...

Too bad life forces you to make decisions about things before they become certain. Because often when things become certain it is too late to do anything about it.



I don't know anything WILL...

Your explanation this time, I understand. When you tried to illustrate it by tying aircraft effectiveness to simple size difference, I didn't.

I read about the bomber gap once. What we got out...

So I take that an off the wall idea I considered for about 10 seconds to illustrate the kind of thinking that might have to be done in an emergency should become an immediate national defense...

Please Dayuhan, please. I was obviously commenting about the future, the future, years down the road. Things that may happen, not things that are.

The most critical planes in our inventory are...

Ken:

I see your points now but I can't agree on the re-opening the line. Things just won't work fast no matter how much money you throw at it. It takes time to train the workers, build the...

This is the top comment for that clip.

"B-52 solving the world's problems since the late 50's."

WM I think I get the point you are trying to make (something about mere sized conferring advantage) but it doesn't have much, nothing, to do with high performance aircraft, design requirements etc...

Ken, at the risk of incurring your ire, I'll buy that with regard to mortars but not tank guns. No way. If you just look at a 105 round meant to be fired from a rifled gun vs. a 115 round meant to...

Geesh Dayuhan, you just can't leave a simple thing be simple can you. It was just a simple observation that when picking calibres for tank main guns, the Soviet powers that seemed to fixate on...

Those are critical points. The Romans did extend that and their empire lasted a long time. One of the things Alaric was upset about is he didn't get the rank in the Roman Army he wanted. I read an...

That may be true but when out in one of lands of the Hesco barrier, it sure is fun to say you are calling from your little spot on the imperial frontier.

The key phrase is "the very real benefits they brought." And in the case of Rome, those places I mentioned became Rome.

Perhaps people may prefer ineffective freedom to effective control. The...

Ganulv:

I have a question. I think that for an empire to endure and be truly successful, like the British and Roman, for example, they have to bring some benefits to the subjects. It can't all...

The Romans are misjudged. They conquered and subdued but many of the places they conquered and subdued became Rome. Gaul, Iberia, Britain, North Africa, Italy, they fit this pattern. And those...

Well said.

Well let's see. The Soviet Union and all those east European satellites are no more. And all the things I talked about helped maintain the status quo until they rotted as you said.

Military...

Popular usage and all that. Everybody knows exactly what is meant when "communist regimes" are referred to.



As you say, in the US that kind of stuff is illegal. In Red China, it is not...

Would that have held in 1940, 1920, 1960 or 1910? For most of history life in the rest of the civilized world has been pretty stinko for the average guy. It seems to me that there hasn't been much...