this would have solved her problem.
If identifying as objects, why not a Death Star. Go big or go home.
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I am shocked that he is not wearing that par-fay she is eating with a spoon delicately placed inside his ear canal.
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I look at this as history repeating itself; specifically the Revolt of the Admirals and the attempts to draw down the Navy between WWII and Korea in favor of Air Force nuclear bombers. Basically, Congress was convinced that ships were no longer needed and we could handle any situation by dropping a nuke or two. When South Korea was suddenly invaded and we didnât have the ships to blockade North Korea, it became apparent that the nuclear bomber push had limits. Getting rid of USMC tanks doesnât make sense to me.
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Off topic post reply hereâŚ
I think that the new F-16 âReplacementâ would make a huge difference in CAS and future Multi-Domain Operations since not every combat scenario requires the involvement of a complex and expensive F-35 Stealth aircraft. Having a conventional âradar-friendlyâ all-new design Generation 4.5 fighter/bomber for US air support missions for the soldiers and Marines can take up some ground firepower slack in the future.
That is presuming that you have them nearby and readily available. Sometimes help from the air is a long way off, and local conditions do not make for optimal air support. Not to mention permissive rules of engagement.
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Yep! The only thing you can bet on is what you come ashore with.
âThe road to hell is paved with good intentionsâ But in this case the ones doing the paving wonât be the ones getting shot at.
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They rarely areâŚ
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Unfortunately the schmucks at the pointy end of the spear are the ones left holding the bag when the next good idea turns out to be another flop brought to you by the bad idea people who failed to take enemyâs capabilities into consideration when they tinkered with things. They mess around a cut things and then have to scramble to make up shortfalls when the caca hits the fan. One would think that the Commandant would take the lessons learned from what happened at the beginning of World War II and Korea and apply them to what heâs trying to do. Missiles are not the be all and end all, they cannot take and hold ground any more than aircraft can. I am so glad that I am retiredâŚ
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Maybe this will help cheer people up: (3) Safety First - YouTube
Ken
âŚand donât forget to hydrate.
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For the US, our generals, our politicians, and most of our citizenry, there is almost no accountability or personal consequence for military failure. Itâs a very bad misperception that will likely bring great harm to the US eventually.
Everyone has a spare 2.7 trillion dollars in their back pocket to pitch pennies with or roll dice with donât they?
It wasnât always that way. Probably at the root of the problem is who serves in the US military? Volunteers 
If more members of Congress or the business, rich and media elites had had children in uniform, the United States would probably fund the Marine Corp at a higher level so triage decisions werenât required with resource allocation. Weâd probably also be way more careful as a nation at getting entangled in any given war without a winning strategy.
Itâs just the other side of this coin Chickenhawk Nation Mentality .
You know, those eager to go to war, as long as someone else is going. Itâs the story of a country willing to do anything for its military except take it seriously.
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F*** that noise
He took her beer!
No good story starts withâ I was having a waterâŚâ
Talk about history repeating itself. On the flip side of the coin, China looks to be creating a new version of the pre WWII Japanese strategy: create a defensive island perimeter away from the homeland, encircling their national objectives, which will force the US to fight a naval based campaign thru that defensive perimeter, if we choose to oppose their plans of conquest once set in motion. Or settle for a negotiated peace allowing them to maintain control of their newly won conquests.
Now if the fools in Washingtonâs puzzle palaces can remember to read their historyâŚ
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They are reading history but putting too much on the wrong parts of history that should be left to the academia eggheads and not enough the parts that will apply to defeating a enemy that doesnât care about the current objectives of history.
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They are just waiting on the Chinese to send us a list of targets NOT to strike. You know, like the one we gave Putin.
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Yes indeed. At least twice in the 20th century the US has gotten into wars after statements were made by diplomats that omitted those locations as places we would fight over, Korea and Kuwait. In both cases, the dictators in charge of those we fought took the omissions as green lights to make their moves.
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Considering the damage the Russians did to Ukraineâs power grid back in '15, Iâm starting to think the next war will be fought primarily through cyberspace. (Thatâs why Iâm getting pretty heavy into quantum computing! Hopefully CSIS wants some expertise on the quantum cybersecurity front.)
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I think this is key and somewhere the west better smarten up. We may have massive military might in nato that I donât think Russia or China would have a hope of taking on head to head. But we lag way behind in cyber. The attack on the us pipeline system this year was teaser of whatâs to come if we donât get proactive
We have a few things going for us, such as the fact that the west still leads in terms of our computer hardware (the worldâs best supercomputers are American, gotta hand it to you guys down south, yâall know how to manage your hardware on that front). Both Russia and China are pretty dependant on foreign computer systems, so in many ways theyâve yet to develop cybersecurity threats the west canât anticipate to some extent.
Another thing we have going for us is that China in particular has developed some really high-level operational expertise when it comes to executing cyberattacks, but theyâre pretty well useless when it comes to trying to develop new methods of cyberattack, and really thatâs the most important part of this game computer scientists play. They have some effective methods, but they stick to them. Blame it on an educational system that emphasizes wrote memorization, I guess. Thatâs why you donât usually hear about successful Chinese cyberattacks. They happen, and they damn well test the security of info protection systems, but at the end of the day they have yet to develop enough unprecedented attack methods to pose a serious threat (yet). This is not to discount just how amazing they are at cyberwarfare.
Speaking of hardware, neither Russia nor China have any practical quantum computing hardware. The USA has a number of really good companies pushing out quantum computers that are viable, and here in Canada there are a number of groups developing quantum computers that donât decohere. As weâre developing this technology, an increasing number of organizations are protecting their info servers and operational nets with quantum firewalls, basically making them un-hackable. If and when our governments start protecting things like pipelines, train schedules, nuclear reactors, etc with quantum computers, this whole cyberwarfare thing becomes a moot point because you canât hack a quantum computer unless you break the laws of physics (which even the Russians canât do, as far as Iâve heard.)
So we have this insane advantage over the rest of the world in terms of security, but it isnât worth anything until our governments throw in behind it. I may be biased because I program quantum computers, but they very well could be the immovable object.
The problem is that Russia and China (but especially China) take scientific research funded by the state extremely seriously. I would kill to have a government agency throwing stacks of ca$h at me the way the Peopleâs Republic does at comp sci students over there. They are behind us in certain regards, but we canât sit on our hands. The west needs to get moving the way we did in the 50âs and 60âs and overcome our partisan differences. Congress and the House of Commons need to stop bickering across party lines and need to, in a bipartisan way, start funneling money away from useless military projects (looking at you, CF-18 procurement competition) and towards scientific institutions. If we do that, the west can always be one step ahead of the east.
A thought experiment for the more physically-minded here: letâs say that, as is the case, a tank formation utilizes GPS or some such analogue to understand where it is in relation to friendly units, the terrain, etc. What happens if that GPS system is taken offline? What if the GPS system is hacked so it shows commanders units in places where they are not, or communications that never happened? This is the kind of thing that happens when a nation loses their edge in cyberwarfare. Ask the Iranians when their radar systems outright lied to them about the presence of Israeli jets. We canât afford to lose this edge.
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Nice insights. Thanks Dennis!