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New war. New bomb.

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Sources say MOAB — still experimental — is a 21,000-pound bomb that will be pushed out the back of a C-130 transport and guided by satellite. Because it is not dropped by parachute, as was the old Daisy Cutter, the aircraft can let it go from far higher altitudes, making it safer for U.S. pilots.

The MOAB's massive explosive punch, sources say, is similar to a small nuclear weapon.

It is intended to obliterate a command center hidden in tunnels and bunkers or a concentration of Iraqi tanks.

Whatever the target, it must be far from cities where civilians might be hurt. But one important aspect of using this type of weapon, sources say, will be psychological impact on enemy troops. It is intended to terrorize Iraqi troops, drastically reducing their desire to continue the fight.

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Far from cities eh? Where would that be then..in an un-populated area? And here I was thinking it was all about killing poor Iraqis but its actually about testing weapons!

    By the way...by some amazing technological feat I am now able to access the site from home!! HURRAH!! I have joined the 21st century and I have e-mail in my bedroom. Its 9.13 pm, the dog wants a walk but I'm busy Drinking my Bacardi Breezer and surfing the net...nice to speak to you (and not feel like my boss is looking over my shoulder)!!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    glad you'll be on more byny.

    War is scary. Read an article yesterday about the plant for a massive attack and it was overwhelming.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    You could forgive Saddam for thinking it's somehow unfair Iraq is about to be bombed back to the stone age because of its alleged ownership of WMDs by the very country that not only owns the biggest arsenal of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons on earth but that continues to develop new weapons of mass destruction and parade them to the world with great pride (and seemingly oblivious to the great hypocrisy of it all).

    Presumably if Saddam were to use a nuclear missile against, say the US Navy's 6th fleet the Americans would consider it a fair move so long as the fleet was well away from populated areas and there were no civilian casualties? At the end of the day, imagine the psychological impact such an attack would have on US troops. Can’t really blame the Iraqis for trying such thing can we?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I am getting impatient. The war keeps being postponed over and over again. After Dubya mops up Iraq he is due to attack Iran, Syria, and Libya. I figure that should stir up another hornet's nest of terrorism and destroy the American economy in the long run.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I'm worried about our soldiers at this point. If we're going to fight a war, then do what you've got to do to save the lives of the soldiers on our side.

    Plus, Iraq's soldiers will turn and run IF they are sure we are going to over-throw him. AND liberating people from tyrants defines America and the UK as nations.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    So what does our continued support for other more compliant tyrants define us as then pnj?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    it is intended to terrorize Iraqi troops

    And there i was thinking that we were fighting against terrorism.
    Oh wait for some strange reason no i didnt oh well
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    The thing that makes this war easier as an American is that 20,000 body parts were recovered from the WTC. Nobody gave a damn about innocent American lives. So since my leader knows more than me and since the troops are committed...I want them fully backed by everything that could save THEIR lives.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    You speak a further insult to the international community in your statement above,pnj, and unjustly as well.

    Nearly every country in the world demonstrated an enormous outpouring of sympathy for the US in the wake of the WTC attacks. The fact that Bush and co have subsequently squandered and trodden upon that sympathy in their arrogance and self righteous bid for war and geo-political bullying is no fault of the world at large.

    I suggest you begin levelling your critiques where they truly belong, namely Washington.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    It's bad enough that Bush insulted the memory of 3,000 victims by promoting his completely unrelated war on Iraq on the 9/11 anniversary speech. It's even worse than some people continue to use the memory of the dead to justify their aims.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Not surprising that there are suits against the Bush admin by the families of the victims in the US currently pending.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I suggest you belong in Europe Clandestine. You stopped truly caring about the welfare of people in the US a long time ago.

    Germany giving 15 years to someone who helped the 911 animals is an insult. Germans should have changed their laws to give him more...they didn't.

    Using the victims? You want to make the Iraq war and the war on terrrorism unrelated because it suits your buddies in Europe. It doesn't make it so. I've seen no sign of you saying anything positive ever about what America is or saving American lives.

    The truth is, many in Europe in 2001 and now are part of a cult that believes standing for nothing...means something. It doesn't.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    You are so full of shit its coming out your ears boy.

    Your main problem is not only that like our administration you choose to make ignorant, nationalistic generalisations which are as insulting as they are incorrect, but you do it repeatedly and without showing the slightest sign that you have (as you like to claim) learned anything here.

    You may like to act the cherring squad of the British character (for reasons that are completely shallow and lacking in any knowledge of the UK whatsoever) but I can tell you that your attitude wouldnt win you any friends even there (except the odd football hooligan perhaps).

    Go away and stop embarrassing decent Americans both at home and abroad.

    You go ahead and prove how Saddam or Iraq has any link whatsoever to 9/11. That would be a feat to behold indeed.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Hmmmm. Nah. Think I'll stay.

    From Sky News today:

    Tony Blair said it was fear that one day rogue states and international terrorists would combine to deliver a catastrophe.

    He said he sees - almost on a daily basis - evidence of plotting by terrorists "desperately seeking a chink through the security infrastructure that protects our nation and others".

    And he warned that al Qaeda has been trying to develop a "dirty" nuclear bomb.

    Desperate

    With repressive regimes such as Saddam's also desperate to develop such weapons, Mr Blair added: "If we do not take a stand now...then at some point a state or a terrorist group, pursuing extremism with no care for human life, will use such weapons, and not just Britain but the world will be plunged into a living nightmare from which we will struggle long and hard to awake."
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Calm down pnj. Before you get your knickers in a twist and your emotions get the better of you, try to do some thinking:

    1. You cannot change a law overnight, especially to give a specific individual a bigger punishment. It would not happen in America either or anywhere else. It is your right to complain that Germany's laws don't provide enough punishment for crimes, and it is a good argument as well. But your suggestion that they should have changed their laws to punish someone involved in 9/11 is nothing but a desperate attempt to throw some mud at a nation that has committed the grand capital crime of questioning America's foreign policy. It is nonsense and you know it.


    2. You can say as much as you want that the war on terror and Iraq are linked, but I suspect you know better and are just on denial. You are now effectively alone in the world on this issue and not even your government is backing you any more. Notice how all attempts to link the two have been now effectively abandoned by Bush and Blair after being unable to present even the faintest thread of evidence, and Britain's secret services confirmed in a leaked document that there is no link whatsoever.

    3. If you were really so concerned about saving American lives then you would be calling for the immediate return of US troops from the Gulf. For they are about to be sent to fight a completely unnecessary war that has absolutely nothing to do with protecting American lives (how the hell could it be??) and everything with power and economic interests.

    You obviously work on the principle that your government can and must be trusted on all issues, and that it's your duty as an American to support your government in all instances, however dubious or unclear its intentions are.
    Well, it's not like that. Keep in mind that the President is your employee. Yours and every other American's. It is your duty to scrutinise and monitor what your government does, not accept everything they throw at you. A true patriot is that who is prepared to do this, and the concept that those Americans who oppose this senseless war are 'traitors' is stupid beyond belief.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Do you ever have an independent thought that you dont get from what Mr. Blair, Mr. Bush, or the N.Y. Post said? lol. Somehow I doubt it.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    And in terms of the case in Germany, I think youd find, if you actually did any research on the matter, that the man was given the maximum penalty he could be given as only a very casually linked player. He was not a key Al Qaeda commander, nor strategist.

    Of course if you think 15 years is a light sentence Id like to see how youd last in a German prison as an arab for even 1 day.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I trust Blair and Bush bascially. This war has done nothing but hurt their careers. I do agree that fighting terrorism mostly involves detecting people who don't live in a certain country and don't move like a traditional army. I do agree with that. But since we are going to war, the lives I'm most worried about saving are the British and American troops. 70% of the American troops are under 22. That's not THAT old. I know it's not real young either.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    One day I hope it is demonstrated to you clearly just how misplaced your trust of these two was. Lots of kids in the 60's trusted Kennedy and LBJ and Nixon too when it came to the war, only to learn in time that it was all predicated upon lies.

    Oh how im sure youll rant and rail in embarrassment then at how your faith was betrayed. The gullible never learn from generation to generation.

    But fear not for your hero Bush, he's got so much money flowing in to his family coffers from his excessive increase in expenditures to the MIC and the eventual oil revenues that he plans to secure that even without the Presidency he'll live far beyond the means of the vast majority of Americans he claims to serve.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Alladin
    3. If you were really so concerned about saving American lives then you would be calling for the immediate return of US troops from the Gulf. For they are about to be sent to fight a completely unnecessary war that has absolutely nothing to do with protecting American lives (how the hell could it be??) and everything with power and economic interests.

    You obviously work on the principle that your government can and must be trusted on all issues, and that it's your duty as an American to support your government in all instances, however dubious or unclear its intentions are.
    Well, it's not like that. Keep in mind that the President is your employee. Yours and every other American's. It is your duty to scrutinise and monitor what your government does, not accept everything they throw at you. A true patriot is that who is prepared to do this, and the concept that those Americans who oppose this senseless war are 'traitors' is stupid beyond belief.

    Now that's a good argument. That spoke to me.
    I'm still too afraid not to send the troops there. But that was the message your peace movement never sent to America and should have.:)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Do some research lil man, that along with many other messages were sent to the administration. Just goes to show how much truth can be kept from the American public by the corporate media.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Clandestine, I remember some of that from the Pentagon Papers links you sent... that I appreciate....

    But when your country is being attacked, you have to trust the leaders.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Our country is not being attacked. Now youve internalised the spin so much youre fantasizing!

    The only attacks our nation are under is from a fearmongering administration hell bent on its own hidden agendas whilst keeping the public so bound up with confusion and paranoia they cant possibly collect their thoughts enough to turn the spotlight on what this lying corrupt administration has done and is doing to our future national security, liberties, and economic wellbeing.

    I suggest you wake up soon before you follow them into the morass they are creating.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Clandestine, I want your opinion on a new topic I put up: "a threat level assigned to every passenger."
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I think you know as well as I do what I think about further examples of this administration's betrayal of civil liberties and the further imposition of their Big Brother police state over the nation.

    Go do some research into COINTELPRO and you might learn just how dangerous Washington can be to the citizenry of the nation it claims to serve. Big brother is alive and well and the sheeple snooze on under the delusion that the enemy is without.
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