@ luckskua - What's a Type 46 ? Some kind of secret ship that we don't know about yet ? I presume you meant Type 42 (now all withdrawn) or Type 45 (unproven and all in the northern hemisphere).
@ mattmccabebrown - The ground "war" in Iraq and the US invasion of Afghanistan are similar to Viet-Nam in that their troops have no idea how to deal with the local populace. The are still taught the big, cold-war doctrine of war, with a clear front-line and a clearly defined enemy. That have still not learnt how to differentiate between civillians and insurgents, or how to gain the trust of the people that they are, allegedly, defending and protecting. British forces have always been better at this, but it's hard to gain the trust and support of the locals when you're on the same side as the Americans, who the locals quite rightly do not trust. The Americans would rather kill 50 innocent locals than take a risk of actually getting out of their armoured vehicles and finding out who the enemy really is...
@ Greyman - You thgink the yanks have no reason to be in Afghan ? What about silicon ? Massive reserves buried under the sand pit...
Really? I was under the impression that silicon is not to be found in a natural state, but it massively common as a compound. Seeing as sand is a compound of silicon, you wouldn't have to go all the way to Afghanistan to find it.
Believe they have this already - they certainly have the bomb and its being reported that they can strike to approx Alaska, but no further...yet!
Yes, I saw that "report". To be taken with a salt cellar. Remember Saddam could hit London within 18 minutes or some such spurious crap, and was sourcing uranium from Nigeria or somewhere. Except that he wasn't. Anyway, there's not a great deal to destroy in Alaska, habitation-wise, even if they could hit it. This is like groundbaiting a swim: soften up the populace so that when there is a war, we can all say how marvellous and justified it all is.
@ gliddofglood - Sorry, have no idea why I said silicon, blame the fact that it's Sunday. I meant lithium. Lithium is very important to the development of battery technologies... Hence the worrying news story "When Afghanistan made the news in June of 2010, it wasn’t for the usual reasons. The US Government had brought in geologists to evaluate Afghanistan’s mineral resources and their conclusions were spit-take worthy. The iron, copper, gold, lithium, and rare earth elements present are worth something in the neighborhood of $1 trillion. This is a country whose GDP has recently climbed to $30 billion..." Yes, that does say $1 trillion... still think the yanks will be leaving any time soon ?
We wouldn't be the remotest bit interested in them unless they had something we could steal. Still think we're the good guys..?
@ JR45 - Indeed Afghanistan's resources could make it the richest mining region on earth - Asia - World - The Independent Bribery and corruption, surely not - No mate, I don't think they'll be leaving anytime soon -
Well, if they're going to kill anyone, let's hope they get her. Mind you, I suspect her views are pretty typical of the inhabitants of Alaska. They did elect her after all.
Just as an aside, its 60 years this year since the first Korean war so Kim Jong whatsisname may be attempting to replicate the situation which brought his dad Kim Jong the other bloke and star of team America to power. Its my belief that hes stoopid enough to do it in an effort to "reunite" Korea and take back what he believes is his i.e the south. The last war was instigated by the North who overnight invaded the South and encircled Seoul until the US pitched in then it was retreat double time until the Peoples Republic of China and secretly the Soviets (the USSR had pilots flying NK and Chinese marked Russian supplied Mig 15's) turned up then it was declared a draw. This time China is effectively trading with the West as is Russia and the USSR no longer exists so while Kim Jong madman is likely to attempt a realistic invasion, he wont have China or Russia quite as supportive this time round therefore he might be mad enought to deploy the "gamechanger" i.e go nuclear. Then God help us all. The current situation Is scary.
Apparently N.Korea has the fifth largest army in the world (1.1 million soldiers), and the largest if the reserve is called upon (9.5 million). They apparently have the capacity to lob half a million shells per hour into Seoul. __________________
