Re: B-17 Wing Covering Thickness

Try Bob Woodward's "Plan of Attack", which goes into depth about the planning for the Iraqi campaign. It covers both the political and military sides.

John Hairell ( snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com)

apparently it doesn't scare the military enough.

In article , big al wrote: a>

do they have any oil resources? seems like a big damn country to have none. the three gorges will be a huge boost to electricity production but it won't power ic engines or reaction engines.

and that will byte us on the ass.

the do seem to have a willingness to expend lives like bullets. cannon fodder is a concept they embrace.

that the same woodward from watergate? is so, he's a damn smart guy.

Al Superczynski wrote:

Al:

I have a friend who's son is a recruiting Sergeant. According to him the "Mama" factor is starting to hurt. You have CBS showing some Soldier or Marine who has been killed in Iraq on their evening news every night and a lot of people who might otherwise enlist are getting a real negative reaction at home. It is starting to hurt. It's been 3 1/2 years since 9/11 and attitudes have begun to shift. This same recruiter tells the story of a young woman who came through his recruiting station a couple of months after 9/11: He said most of the young women/girls who came through his station followed a pattern; usually overdone eye make up, hair a strange color, and rings and piercings through all imaginable (and a few un imaginable) places. So when a clean looking well dressed young woman came through one afternoon with very little make up and no ring in her nose he was intrigued. He looked at her papers and she listed education as a Masters degree in something (I forget what). This really made him curious and when he interviewed her he asked point blank "What makes someone with your qualifications want to join the Army". She stepped up to him and with her nose about 6" from his looked him straight in the eye and said "Look Sergeant, my Brother was in one tower and my Husband was in the other and neither one of them got out. What problem do you have understanding why I want to help kill Arabs"? Oh Boy, what do you say to someone like that. He said if he ever sees her again he will have to salute her cause with her education they probably sent her straight to OCS. But, that was then, this is now.

Bill Shuey

I don't doubt that that's a big part of the recruiting problem. Volunteering in the face of possible death or serious injury takes a

Lots of cannon fodder does not a first-rate military power make. Ask Saddam Hussein about that...

Yes, but they've become a net importer and demand is increasing rapidly. They face oil supply problems similar to ours but without a blue water navy to protect their supply lines.

In article , cool wrote: cool al wrote

i agree, but the chinese seem unaware of that and still have a huge army.

wierd, google doesn't seem to know where the chinese oil fields are.

Read...

Why would they need it?..

Yup.

Yes - definately. In fact, if you want some evidence and know anything about warship tech, Trumpeter has even released (or is pending release of) some kits of Chinese types that should scare the snot out of you if you look at them closely...and know what you're looking at.

And if you stop to think about it, they really don't have to get much more blue than 12 mile off the eastern shore of Taiwan in order to provoke a serious international incident...but that would be enough.

Not to mention that I'm not presently convinced that much more than that is what they'd like...though you have to maintain a HEALTHY skepticsism about a nation that thinks in terms of 100 year economic plans.

Actually it's the politicians that need to be afraid - they control the purse, and therefore the materiel. Cost wins out over strategy, it seems...

But then we can also blame our current - "factory?..not in my backyard", "work we no longer wish to do" - mentality/politics. There's enough blame to go around.

...or they could just go full tilt nuke for the home-fires the way the French have done.

Besides, it's not really a matter of the mechanizing the nation, as much as mechanizing a fighting force - remember gas rationing in the USA during WWII? Should be really easy in a country that doesn't know any different. Or care.

China is a nation that HAS lives to spend as a natural resource...and that's pretty scarry. Eveidence their "one family, one child", forced abortion policy in a effort to control population.

Imagine the army they could conscript under communism...