Though I am totally against the current U.S. military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq, I can still appreciate the incredible technical capabilities of U.S. weaponry–in this case, the F22 fighter aircraft. I’ve never before seen aircraft doing many of these maneuvers.
There's no doubt that we've got the most technologically advanced military that money can buy. But how does this new plane's amazing dogfighting capabilities help us win the war on terror? I mean, last time I checked, the terrorists had not used a single fighter jet. Yet we're spending billions developing and deploying these types of technologies to defeat an enemy that is still having much success using decidedly low-tech approaches like suicide bombings and IEDs.
Brynn: I agree with your comments.
In fact, I wonder whether there is any situation in which the U.S. would be willing (or economically able) to fight the ultra-expensive sort of war against a major power in which weapons like the F22 would make a difference.
last year, I had a mouse problem in my house. I put out glue traps and caught several, but the rest learned to avoid the traps. I installed metal flashing in all the probable points of entry. They kept coming in. I bought a bunch of cookie tins to prevent the mice form getting to boxed food items like macaroni, flour, millet, etc, and they still came in. I fumigated. They left the house for a few days and came back in force.
I wanted to catch one of the feral cats in the neighbor hood and let it loose in the house for a few hours, but my wife is allergic to cats, so that was not an option.
One evening as we watched TV, a pair of mice sauntered right out in the middle of the living room floor and stared at us a couple of seconds. When I started to stand up, they took off back into the kitchen.
I borrowed a nannycam and set it on the kitchen floor after the supper leftovers were put away and the dishes were cleaned. With all quiet in the kitchen, I watched the remote monitor.
within a few minutes a mouse was checking out the camera. I quietly crept to the kitchen, opened the door, startling the mouse, which hid behind the trash can. I moved the trash can and the mouse made a dash for the corner of the back door and went right under to the outside.
I examined to threshold on the back door and found that the heavy vinyl weather seal, which appeared normal when the door was open but when the door was closed, a small section pushed aside opening a gap the mice could enter and exit through.
After I replaced the threshold with a newer one that made a tighter seal against the door, the mice that remained in the house were unable to get to food or water, and eventually took the mouse bait I had set out under the couch, and died.
Terrorists are a lot like those mice. They sneak in where you are not looking, do their damage were it least expected and learn from the failures and successes of others. They are very adaptable.
I once read about someone trying to shot a mouse in a store room with a 38-revolver, doing much damage to the stored goods while missing the mouse.
The F22 is an excellent tool for doing what it was designed to do. but it would be totally idiotic to use it to kill mice. Just push a few buttons, launch a sidewinder and BOOM! mice gone… along with the house.
Our soldiers are deployed in an indiscriminate manner, to use high tech weaponry in an indiscriminate way and are more damaging to our cause as a result. Instead of neat whiz-bang toys that help create more enemies, we need a focused, investigative approach that works with the friendlies to exclusively remove these mice uh terrorists, from our kitchen.
Niklaus: Not only is it the wrong tool for the job, but the government paid a huge amount of money for it, so it will be sorely tempted to try to show the taxpayers that we are spending those tax dollars well and that an F22 is a critical tool in the "war against terrorism." As the saying goes, to someone with a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
Totally radical video, where do I get one?
Tim: You tell the U.S. government that you will help them with the "war on terror" and they will fix you up. If that doesn't work, just repeat the phrase "war on terror" a few extra times.
Hey! I've already been telling these guys to frame the battle against terror in a cultural context (to supplement the hardware war) through religious condemnations of repeated attacks upon innocent Muslims by terorists.
http://dangerousintersection.org/?s=Charlie+Wilso…
The wrong approach has been used and has allowed the terrorists to define and frame their role as "liberators" and "defenders of the faith" when their terror has its most devastating impact on ordinary, innocent Muslims.
These murderers must make the regular, peaceful Muslim population over into clones of themselves or fail utterly. No attempt has been made to frame these murderers as what they are—immoral, impious criminals.
Now, I've won the waar on terror! Do I get my F-22, now?
While many of your comments and analogies are very clever- especially the mouse one- the F22 was never designed for the war on terror. They started development around 1986, well before the current war. There aren't any in the middle east. They were designed for use against Russia in WW3 which hopefully we'll never have to fight. By the way, terrorists aren't that smart. It's just not that hard to kill people if your really determined to do it.
Damn, these guys are a hard sell. I mean, I solve the "War on Terror" and I can't even get a measly F-22?
OK! OK! Here's my best shot, and it had better work to get me my F-22.
Here's my ultimate plan to get OSB!
Just let the AARP know that Osama bin Laden is over 50!
The AARP is a bunch of relentless bastards who will track down any and everyone over 50 to pitch them on joining, getting their insurance, and their other products and services.
I mean OSB is nearly seven feet tall, over 50 and needs weekly dialysis—he's toast to the AARP!
We don't need to send anymore middle aged ninja wannabes to Northern Pakistan to get OSB, just let the AARP get him in their sights and the world will know where he is!
They just closed the Air National Guard base at Lambert St. Louis International Airport, so I know there's space to securely store my F-22 there. That way you all know the aircraft is safe for me and from others. C'mon Uncle Sam, how many freebies do you want before I get my F-22?
Hey, this thing is a two seater, eh?
If not, I want a de-commissioned C5A so I can upgrade its engines for more power, less noise and greater fuel efficiency. I have some guys that tell me they can re-design the structure of the airframe so I can land on shorter runways, go farther, carry more cargo, and to launch manned space craft in-flight to service satellites and the ISS after NASA stupidly stops flying space shuttles. We couild base the aircraft out of Mid-America Airport, there's nothing else there!
Col. Howard, are you interested?