On Sun, 16 Apr 2017 18:28:29 -0400, wrote:

On Sun, 16 Apr 2017 16:51:26 -0400, Poco Deplorevole
wrote:

On Sun, 16 Apr 2017 16:34:45 -0400, wrote:

On Sun, 16 Apr 2017 12:44:10 -0400, Poco Deplorevole
wrote:

why we have any interest in the middle east at all. It certainly is
not oil.

Maybe it's just simple humanitarianism.

There are people being ****ed over all over the planet and we really
do not care in most places.

That's true. But that's not to say we shouldn't do what we can where we can. I'd love to see us
doing more to punish the assholes in Africa doing their damndest to rape, plunder and pillage
everything they can, including girls even younger than those Harry likes.

Perhaps we take on those who may present a bigger threat. Of course, if you believe there are no
threats out there, then that is a meaningless point also.

How many kids would you send to Somalia? Congo? Yeah, I thought so.

Depends on the situation and the terrain. But, the fact that the suffering are black doesn't take
away from the humanity issue.

On Sun, 16 Apr 2017 22:06:18 -0400, wrote:

On Sun, 16 Apr 2017 18:45:18 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 4/16/2017 6:31 PM, wrote:
On Sun, 16 Apr 2017 16:58:18 -0400, Poco Deplorevole
wrote:

while the MOAP wipes out
everything on the surface within a mile radius

Doesn't seem like a cave buster to me and that is what the CNN
military guy said. As for "sealing the entrance" even a silly rabbit
knows you should have two holes into a burrow.



The other end of those "burrows" are in Pakistan.

So why do we even bother.

We simply do our best with what we've got.

On Sun, 16 Apr 2017 18:31:51 -0400, wrote:

On Sun, 16 Apr 2017 16:58:18 -0400, Poco Deplorevole
wrote:

while the MOAP wipes out
everything on the surface within a mile radius

Doesn't seem like a cave buster to me and that is what the CNN
military guy said. As for "sealing the entrance" even a silly rabbit
knows you should have two holes into a burrow.

Your cutting left out the context. If we killed a hundred or so, something must have worked.

On Sun, 16 Apr 2017 18:41:31 -0400, wrote:

On Sun, 16 Apr 2017 17:09:53 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 4/16/2017 4:34 PM, wrote:


On Sun, 16 Apr 2017 12:44:10 -0400, Poco Deplorevole
wrote:

why we have any interest in the middle east at all. It certainly is
not oil.

Maybe it's just simple humanitarianism.

There are people being ****ed over all over the planet and we really
do not care in most places.



In terms of percent of GNP, Sweden leads the list for foreign
humanitarian aid by government at just under 1 percent of GNP.
In terms of GNI (whatever that is) Turkey actually is on top.

The USA government direct humanitarian aid by GNP is something like
number 20 on the list.

However, when you add in private and corporate donations, the USA dwarfs
all other nations in total humanitarian aid at about 6.4 billion.
Surprisingly, Turkey is next at $3.2 billion, then the UK at $2.8
billion. (2015 numbers)

I guess it depends on who you say doesn't care.


If the DoD budget is actually Humanitarian aid as has been posed here,
we win ... by a long shot.

Who 'posed' that? It may have been suggested that a small portion of the DoD budget was used for
humanitarian aid, but your statement above is false.

On Sun, 16 Apr 2017 18:43:09 -0400, wrote:

On Sun, 16 Apr 2017 17:36:04 -0400, Poco Deplorevole
wrote:

That is even sillier in this context than the one up thread a bit.
If we were just interested in humanitarian causes, we would be bombing
Afghanistan with food, books and satellite connected PCs.
That would be a winning strategy in N Korea too.

You're assuming ISIS and Kim give a rat's ass about their people.

ISIS influence could be blunted with some education and Kim would not
last a week if his people actually understood the lie.

Educate who? How? While you may be right about Kim's people, Kim has a huge Army to ensure his
people do as he says. As long as he keeps his generals happy, he's got the population under his
thumb.

On 4/17/2017 8:37 AM, Poco Deplorevole wrote:
On Sun, 16 Apr 2017 18:31:51 -0400, wrote:

On Sun, 16 Apr 2017 16:58:18 -0400, Poco Deplorevole
wrote:

while the MOAP wipes out
everything on the surface within a mile radius

Doesn't seem like a cave buster to me and that is what the CNN
military guy said. As for "sealing the entrance" even a silly rabbit
knows you should have two holes into a burrow.

Your cutting left out the context. If we killed a hundred or so, something must have worked.



The world is made up of optimists and pessimists. The latter focus on
all the reasons something can't work or can't be done. The optimists
focus on what *can* work and what *can* be done.

Pessimists sit idly by, watching the optimists succeed, and then
complain about the risks that were taken and how they would never have
done it that way.

On Sun, 16 Apr 2017 22:25:01 -0400, wrote:

On Sun, 16 Apr 2017 19:05:12 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 4/16/2017 6:53 PM, wrote:
On Sun, 16 Apr 2017 17:42:15 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 4/16/2017 4:45 PM, wrote:

That is even sillier in this context than the one up thread a bit.
If we were just interested in humanitarian causes, we would be bombing
Afghanistan with food, books and satellite connected PCs.
That would be a winning strategy in N Korea too.



The vast majority of the NK population wouldn't know what the PC's were,
let alone know how to use them.

I guess you have not seen the stories about the people who are
spreading cheap PCs among 3d world people. The kids pick it up and
start using it right away with minimal training.

http://one.laptop.org/


In North Korea? Most places there don't even have electricity to
charge the batteries. Check out the night time satellite images.
South Korea is lit up like a Christmas tree, right up to the border
where it suddenly goes pitch black everywhere.


That machine can be charged a couple different ways including a hand
crank, solar or a various combination of electrical sources.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OLPC_XO

It is really a pretty cool machine.For $200 you can get 2, one for you
and one for a kid in Fumbuck.

If these PCs would enable North Koreans to see how the rest of the world lives, then I am sure the
penalty for owning one would be very severe.

On Sun, 16 Apr 2017 19:23:09 -0400, wrote:

On Sun, 16 Apr 2017 17:48:10 -0400, Poco Deplorevole
wrote:


I also heard the actual production cost of the MOABs was $170k or so
and you get to $16 million by dividing the $340m program cost by the
21 bombs they built. If you recycled the guidance package and just
demilled the barrel bomb it guides, no doubt that would still be
cheaper but I bet there is a better guidance package out there now too
so it is likely to be chucked.

This is DoD, a billion here, a billion there and pretty soon we are
talking about real money. (Proxmire)
Do you really think they are worried about a couple hundred grand?

How many multi billion dollar weapons systems have we built that were
designed, built, deployed and then scrapped without ever firing a shot
in anger? (and I don't just mean ballistic missiles and nukes)

Read the link I posted about MOAB costs. Washington Post, Times, and even Harry got it all wrong.

This is what I have gotten out of several articles on the bomb
although the numbers wiggle around a few percent but not enough to
matter.

The actual production cost of the MOABs was $170k or so
and you get to $16 million by dividing the $340m program cost by the
21 bombs they built.
It all depends on if you want the incremental cost of one more bomb at
$170k or if you take the total program cost and divide it by the
number built to date.
I paid for the total program and so did you.
It is like saying it only costs a dime to make a pill and ignoring the
development, testing, regulatory, insurance and distribution cost.

Oh, bull****. I posted the facts about the MOAB cost, but apparently you decided to overlook them.
He

https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb...-cost-calamity

On 4/17/2017 8:47 AM, Poco Deplorevole wrote:
On Sun, 16 Apr 2017 22:25:01 -0400, wrote:

On Sun, 16 Apr 2017 19:05:12 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 4/16/2017 6:53 PM, wrote:
On Sun, 16 Apr 2017 17:42:15 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 4/16/2017 4:45 PM, wrote:

That is even sillier in this context than the one up thread a bit.
If we were just interested in humanitarian causes, we would be bombing
Afghanistan with food, books and satellite connected PCs.
That would be a winning strategy in N Korea too.



The vast majority of the NK population wouldn't know what the PC's were,
let alone know how to use them.

I guess you have not seen the stories about the people who are
spreading cheap PCs among 3d world people. The kids pick it up and
start using it right away with minimal training.

http://one.laptop.org/


In North Korea? Most places there don't even have electricity to
charge the batteries. Check out the night time satellite images.
South Korea is lit up like a Christmas tree, right up to the border
where it suddenly goes pitch black everywhere.


That machine can be charged a couple different ways including a hand
crank, solar or a various combination of electrical sources.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OLPC_XO

It is really a pretty cool machine.For $200 you can get 2, one for you
and one for a kid in Fumbuck.



If these PCs would enable North Koreans to see how the rest of the world lives, then I am sure the
penalty for owning one would be very severe.


And if they could connect to NK's Internet, this is what they'd see:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-37426725

On Sun, 16 Apr 2017 19:30:04 -0400, wrote:

On Sun, 16 Apr 2017 17:55:49 -0400, Poco Deplorevole
wrote:

I would not be at all against taking action in Africa similar to what we are doing in Syria. And, in
some cases I would be agreeable to inserting troops - SEALs or whatever. Leaving the problems to the
UN 'peacekeepers' seems to be causing even more trouble.

You want another Somalia huh?
We got our ass handed to us there and we had no interest in going
back. There is no quick SEAL strike that will do anything. It will
only encourage a larger conflict and pretty soon you will be in
another un winnable quagmire.

Hopefully we could do a better job the second time around.