European military and Popular Mechanics

[Rich Grise]

Conscripts? Haven't you heard? The US has an all volunteer army.

Except for the convicted felons to whom the judge offers the option of
prison or the USMC.

I have personally met one of them.

Thanks,
Rich

 

[Rich Grise]

Are you claiming that they didn't volunteer?

That's "volunteering?" "Go to prison, or enlist!" isn't really all that
voluntary, is it?

Of course, you can't understand that, because you've never been convicted
of a crime, and don't know to what lengths people are willing to go to to
stay out of prison.

"Volunteer, or go to prison" isn't really voluntarism, is it?

That's like the religious fundies' definition of free will - "You're free
to obey me and have eternal life, or to disobey and go to Hell for all
eternity."

Thanks,
Rich

 

[Rich Grise]

You are full of it, as usual. The option to go into the military is
only supposed to be offered for minor crimes as a awy for someone to
keep from getting a prsion record that will follow them the rest of
their lives. No one makes them take it.


Do the crime, do the time.

Or get conscripted.

You seem to be afflicted with the same sort of brainlock as the liberals.

Thanks,
Rich

 

[Dirk Bruere at NeoPax]

Bruere, Panteltje, Slowman... the Nederland triplet fairies

...Jim Thompson

You will find that there is a rather well known study on what percentage
of soldiers actually shoot to kill. Well, well known to me, but
obviously not you. use google.

 

[Gerhard Hoffmann]

Am 29.10.2010 21:57, schrieb Michael A. Terrell:
--

-- Politicians should only get paid if the budget is balanced, and there
is enough left over to pay them.

Sounds like you are planning another attack on the tax payer ?

Gerhard

 

[Dirk Bruere at NeoPax]

One in seven US military see combat. Not all of that group kills
anyone.

Traditionally, most front line soldiers do not aim their weapons at the
enemy.
Spray and pray at best. There was a rather contentious study done by S L
A Marshal on the subject.

 

[F. Bertolazzi]

Michael A. Terrell:

Sounds like you have no reading comprehension.

Or better sense of humour than you.

 

[F. Bertolazzi]

Jim Thompson:

Children! Knock it off. Aim your anger at Democrats

Democrats are just one form of self-righteous stupidity.

 

[F. Bertolazzi]

Michael A. Terrell:

You're new here, aren't you?

Are you really not able to tell?

 

[ehsjr]

Children! Knock it off. Aim your anger at Democrats

...Jim Thompson

Sheesh! They want to run the government. The only thing they are
capable of operating well is a pillow - they'ed be good at lying on it.

Ed

 

[Dirk Bruere at NeoPax]

That depends on how close they area, and if they are trying to kill,
or pin down the enemy long enough to make them run out of supplies.




And Hollywood thinks you toss a grenade into the air, (AKA: John
Wayne style) instead of throwing it like a shot-put. Toss one like in
the movies and it will land within 10 feet of where you were standing
when you threw it.

Grenades aren't as heavy as they used to be.
The reason people were taught to throw straight arm was that doing a
normal throw would wrench your shoulder.

 

[F. Bertolazzi]

Michael A. Terrell:

That was a rhetorical question.

Really? I did not realize it.

A rhetorical question is not a question, but a suggestion.
What did you mean to suggest?

I've been here over a decade.

Nice. And so?

 

[F. Bertolazzi]

Michael A. Terrell:

Have you ever thrown live grenades? I have. I had one with a short
fuse that went off less than 20 feet from me.

I had that suspicion...

 

[Dirk Bruere at NeoPax]

Real fucking funny. I had just ducked back into the foxhole when it
went off and covered me with dirt& shrapnel. A half second slower and
I would have been dead.

Known as a "defensive grenade"
"Offensive grenades usually have a radius of lethality less than 15m
Unless you are talking WW2 pineapple.

 

[F. Bertolazzi]

Tim Williams:

France and Britain, obviously -- France's reparations sucked their economy
dry in the 20's (look up Weimar hyperinflation) and annexed one of
Germany's biggest manufacturing centers (the Rhur). What were they going
to do, starve to death?

In a different situation, Hitler would have had his place at Vienna art
school.

As for Poland specifically, well, I don't know what Poland was doing at
the time, but that sounds like a case of "beat up the weak kids in the
playground so you look tougher".

It's and old tradition to run over Poland. Which, by the way, had been part
of Prussia. Immanuel Kant was born in Koenigsberg, now Kaliningrad.

If you look at the history of the great wars in the last half a millenium,
you see they come up about once every century, with a new world leader for
about another century, until the next war comes in.

The last one should have been the german century.
But they got Hitler, not Mussolini or Franco as leader.

Easy way to think of it: economic and social factors build up. Little
wars release a bit, here and there. Every so often a big war kicks up.
It's like diode avalanche at low current. A noisy, chaotic, multivariable
system, similar behavior.
Exactly.

Now that it's a century later again, it's the US's time to step down,
which you *know* isn't going to go smoothly. The economy is already
starting to shit itself. It'll be a Wonder of the World if we're still on
top in even 10 years, let alone 50 or 100.

I would a little more optimistic. But not much.

Moral absolutism sucks, because it can be used to justify almost any
horror.

Oooh, meta-relativism...

LOL. Even if I cannot remember a war or persecution led by a morally
relativistic force.

I would dare to say that the worst crime of moral relativism is that it
paves the way for moral absolutism.

 

[Dirk Bruere at NeoPax]

Tim Williams:


In a different situation, Hitler would have had his place at Vienna art
school.


It's and old tradition to run over Poland. Which, by the way, had been part
of Prussia. Immanuel Kant was born in Koenigsberg, now Kaliningrad.


The last one should have been the german century.
But they got Hitler, not Mussolini or Franco as leader.


I would a little more optimistic. But not much.

Sometime within the next 5 years China will overtake the USA in terms of
its economy measured by PPP.

 

[F. Bertolazzi]

Dirk Bruere at NeoPax:

Sometime within the next 5 years China will overtake the USA in terms of
its economy measured by PPP.

So what? Before they could even think to reach the US per capita income it
will take decades. But it won't happen, unless, as probable, the US incomes
are going to go below the present ones.

Remember that China's miracle is not a miracle at all, it happened, just to
mention few, in England, during the Industrial revolution, In Italy right
after WW2, in Japan in the 70es, in Spain at the end of the century.

It's just the enormous amount of work that peasants are used to do for
barely survive applied to factories. But China is rapidly depleting his
reservoir of desperates, so the wages are due to rise and efficiency
decrease, maybe even before five years.

 

[Dirk Bruere at NeoPax]

You have no clue as to when and where I used it.




It went off less than 20 feet from me. I'm an old man. They didn't
have today's toys when I served.

They are a lot more specialized now.
IIRC the "offensive" ones are lethal at 10m and non-lethal at 15m.
Of course, by "non-lethal" they mean that the fragments will not
penetrate deep enough to kill you (unless you are unlucky). Its quite a
neat trick to have it fragment into pieces sufficiently uniform to be
able to make such predictions. Probably not too useful on high mountains
if you are relying on these numbers...

 

[Dirk Bruere at NeoPax]

Dirk Bruere at NeoPax:


So what? Before they could even think to reach the US per capita income it
will take decades. But it won't happen, unless, as probable, the US incomes
are going to go below the present ones.

The point is that a single nation will be able to marshal more resources
for any given task than the USA within 5 years.

Remember that China's miracle is not a miracle at all, it happened, just to
mention few, in England, during the Industrial revolution, In Italy right
after WW2, in Japan in the 70es, in Spain at the end of the century.

And by the time per capita GDP equals (say) Japan China will be an
unequaled superpower by a vast margin.

It's just the enormous amount of work that peasants are used to do for
barely survive applied to factories. But China is rapidly depleting his
reservoir of desperates, so the wages are due to rise and efficiency
decrease, maybe even before five years.

China has hundreds of millions of "reserves".

 

[F. Bertolazzi]

Dirk Bruere at NeoPax:

The point is that a single nation will be able to marshal more resources
for any given task than the USA within 5 years.

We'll see.

And by the time per capita GDP equals (say) Japan China will be an
unequaled superpower by a vast margin.

I hope to live that long.

China has hundreds of millions of "reserves".

Sure, but at the current "burn rate" they will not last that long.