On 4/15/17 10:14 AM, Keyser Soze wrote:
On 4/15/17 9:55 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 4/15/2017 8:21 AM, Keyser Soze wrote:
On 4/15/17 7:40 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 4/15/2017 1:20 AM, wrote:
The Snooze Press (Ft Myers paper) had an interesting article about
this bomb. It was developed at Eglin AFB in the pan handle and they
were talking to a guy there.
It turns out this is the most expensive barrel bomb I have ever heard
of. These are 16 million a pop. I am not quite sure why you need
precision guidance on a bomb with a 1 mile blast radius but it has it.
I am still not sure why it is so expensive but it is a DoD project.
The guy was saying he really expected these things to be "demilled"
(scrapped) probably because they were approaching their expiration
date. I suppose it was "use it or lose it" for the air force.
I am still not sure how effective it actually was but since it is
really a "shock and awe" weapon, I suppose we shocked someone using
it.
In typical fashion, the russians just packed a bigger tank with
explosive and have a bigger one but I am not sure if it is guided and
I know it was a lot cheaper.
If you believe the Pentagon, it was the perfect weapon for the intended
purpose. Apparently several attempts by Afghan forces (with American
special force advisers) had been made with boots on the ground to clear
the caves and tunnels of ISIS without success. They just ran through
the tunnels into Pakistan. The MOAB took care of that problem.
I read where the bomb killed a couple of dozen people. Big ****ing Deal.
At some point, we'll just pull out of Afghanistan and stop wasting
American lives and American money. Your not-so-almighty military isn't
going to solve it.
The primary objective wasn't to kill anyone although ridding the planet
of 36 more terrorists was an added benefit. It's primary purpose was to
destroy the caves and tunnels being used as a "safe zone" for ISIS
terrorists who were avoiding our forces by temporarily fleeing to
Pakastan.
There are hundreds of caves and tunnels, as the Russkies learned. It was
a wasted effort, except, of course, for the PR Trump thought would help
him.
The US military has confirmed this week that the root of all the
problems in the Middle East was that there just wasn’t a big enough
bomb. Until now…
US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis commented, “I’ve been looking at this
issue for some time, first in my role as Commander of CENTCOM and now as
a senior advisor to the Toddler-in-Chief. And the conclusion I’ve come
to is that we just weren’t dropping big enough bombs. This was really
brought home to me earlier this week when the President authorized us to
launch Tomahawk cruise missiles at Syria. Sure, they looked really cool
but they made really small bangs. Unless of course, you happened to be
standing under one, in which case for those people, well, you know.”
“But now in the beautiful shape of the Mother of All Bombs (MOAB), we
have the solution. If I may a coin a phrase it is indeed ‘bigly’. We’ve
run a test in Afghanistan and I’m pleased to say that shortly after it
incinerated several dozen of their fighters, the Islamic State has
thrown in the towel. Job done! The plan at present is to drop one on
Libya this coming Monday, then two more on Iraq on Tuesday, followed on
Wednesday by whatever we have left onto Syria. If all goes well we
intend to solve the Arab-Israeli dispute by handing Israel and Egypt 50
MOABs each and letting them have at it. Frankly, I’m surprised we’re the
first Administration to think of this.”
http://tinyurl.com/ktpgh4w