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The 'Never Say You've Seen It All' Thread


Machor

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8 hours ago, John Kettler said:

Want a lasting relationship? Try theirs. The lovers of Valdaro. They were found in a tomb in San Giorgio near Mantua, Italy. Still together after 6000 years.

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Regards,

John Kettler

A relationship with a skeleton? No thank you. Too spooky. (no offence to any skeletons reading this)

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The shortest quick battle / war in history

The little known Anglo-Zanzibar War of 1896 is generally considered to be the shortest war in history, lasting for a grand total of 38 minutes.

The story begins with the signing of the Heligoland-Zanzibar treaty between Britain and Germany in 1890. This treaty effectively drew up spheres of influence between the imperial powers in East Africa; Zanzibar was ceded to British influence, whilst Germany was given control over mainland Tanzania...

...

...at 9am the order was given for the British ships in the harbour to begin bombarding the palace. By 09:02 the majority of Khalid’s artillery had been destroyed, and the palaces wooden structure had started to collapse with 3,000 defenders inside. It is also around this time, two minutes after the bombardment started, that Khalid is said to have escaped through a back exit of the palace, leaving his servants and fighters to defend the palace alone.

By 09:40 the shelling had ceased, the Sultan’s flag pulled down, and the shortest war in history had officially ended after only 38 minutes.

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On 11/2/2018 at 9:44 AM, Wicky said:

The shortest quick battle / war in history

The little known Anglo-Zanzibar War of 1896 is generally considered to be the shortest war in history, lasting for a grand total of 38 minutes.

The story begins with the signing of the Heligoland-Zanzibar treaty between Britain and Germany in 1890. This treaty effectively drew up spheres of influence between the imperial powers in East Africa; Zanzibar was ceded to British influence, whilst Germany was given control over mainland Tanzania...

...

...at 9am the order was given for the British ships in the harbour to begin bombarding the palace. By 09:02 the majority of Khalid’s artillery had been destroyed, and the palaces wooden structure had started to collapse with 3,000 defenders inside. It is also around this time, two minutes after the bombardment started, that Khalid is said to have escaped through a back exit of the palace, leaving his servants and fighters to defend the palace alone.

By 09:40 the shelling had ceased, the Sultan’s flag pulled down, and the shortest war in history had officially ended after only 38 minutes.

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The very definition of a short, sharp war. Too bad the US can't do that, though "Shock and Awe" was a fine start to a hundred hour war (and forever since).

Have something entirely less martial to offer.

https://www.tumbex.com/pr1nceshawn.tumblr/post/177417588544/so-much-bigger-than-i-thought

Regards,

John Kettler

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From the linked news article

Quote

 

Sociologist Harald Welzer rejects the notion of interpreting the images of these German soldiers as something unusual and restricted to World War I and the Wehrmacht.

'As paradoxical as it may seem, these photographs of Wehrmacht soldiers in female underwear, on first glance so exotic, actually corroborate the normality of the situation, and not its exceptionality, precisely in times of war.'

 

Cross dressing featured in Brit 1970s sitcom It Ain't 'Alf Hot Mum, in which centered on a group of concert party soldiers in Asia. And in movie Colditz with a concert scene, and in real life POW escape attempts! 

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On 5 June 1941, while returning from the park to the castle, some British prisoners noticed that a passing lady had dropped her watch. One of the British called out to her, but the lady kept walking instead of retrieving her watch. This aroused the suspicion of the German guards and, upon inspection, "she" was revealed to be a French officer, Lieutenant Chasseurs Alpins Bouley, dressed as a very respectable woman.

Lietenant_Bouley_after_failed_escape_att

And not to forget US Army featuring in 1942 Newsreel  in 'Girlie Show' -  – an all singing, dancing, and cross-dressing version of “Swing Fever”

 

Edited by Wicky
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General Jack Ripper,

My brain hasn't undergone such an extraordinary philosophical workout since I took a Philosophy honors course on The Great Chain of Being. A simply phenomenal piece of critical work, which I believe it at least Master's level in terms of the sophistication and rigor of the analysis. I never felt that the ST society was fascist, and I think Heinlein's approach to citizenship was brilliant. Believe it was Ben Franklin, a philosopher himself, who pointedly remarked "That which we receive cheaply, we esteem not." Clearly, Heinlein believed that the greatest prize in society should be obtained only by sustaining the greatest risk, potentially outright fatal in the attempt. Always loved the line regarding (near) universal right to serve. Went something like "It might be testing nerve gas on Pluto while sitting in a wheelchair..."

As a student of the Classics, I note that the term of service for a Roman citizen in the legions was twenty years, but in the auxilia, whose members consisted of non-citizens, it was twenty-five to become a Roman citizen. The Mobile Infantry was so lethal a job that you attained, providing you survived, the same functional result in roughly a tenth of the time. The comments, based on quick skim, are worthwhile. Was fascinated to read that the only nonfiction book used in the curriculum at West Point is ST. ST is used to teach military leadership, and though I was never in the military (VN War ended before my draft number came up), the ethos expressed in that book is burned into my consciousness to this day. I recall that whole discussion  which occurred when a recruit complained of being roughed up by the DI, who responded with things he could lawfully do, particularly on the battlefield, including killing the recruit who wouldn't fight or ran and that he, the DI, had an affirmative duty to do so. That shook me up, but later in life, I read account after account of officers shooting their men if need be. There is a book by one officer about such incidents, and it is called The Men I've Killed. All in all, I think this video was a tour de force. Am deeply grateful you posted it. Shall share it!

Regards,

John Kettler

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22 minutes ago, MOS:96B2P said:

Makes me wonder what happened to those girls and their families after Al Qaeda took over...............       

That (I'm guessing you meant Taliban rather than Al Qaeda) came a long, long time later.....The influence of the 'developed world' on Afghanistan turned rather corrosive at the end of the seventies, sadly it has to be concluded that their current benighted state has far more to do with us than with them. 

Afghanistan was the worst place in the world that one could introduce Islamic fundamentalism, but that is exactly what we did.  Once it had a foothold and the Jihadi networks were established the situation just got progressively worse.....Keep in mind that there were (AFAIK) no suicide bombings against the Soviets in Afghanistan, that too came later. 

 

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I should probably add (in fairness) that attempting to introduce Soviet 'communism' into Afghanistan was equally catastrophic (as the Soviets fully realised at the time ironically, they actually wanted no part of it but were dragged in by the sheer brutal incompetence of the Afghan 'communists').....However the consequences of the west's response to the eventual Soviet invasion have been far reaching and calamitous beyond imagination and sadly it's not over yet. 

Collectively we turned the Islamic world into a ticking bomb and now we are struggling to defuse it.  :mellow:

PS - I'm sure there's a couple of (potentially slightly gloomy) CM campaigns in all of this somewhere!  ;)

 

Edited by Sgt.Squarehead
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19 minutes ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

introduce Soviet 'communism' into Afghanistan was equally catastrophic

PS - I'm sure there's a couple of (potentially slightly gloomy) CM campaigns in all of this somewhere!  ;)  

But beautiful scenery to fight in.  

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Edited by MOS:96B2P
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1 hour ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

However the consequences of the west's response to the eventual Soviet invasion have been far reaching and calamitous beyond imagination and sadly it's not over yet. 

Collectively we turned the Islamic world into a ticking bomb and now we are struggling to defuse it.  :mellow:

I get what you are saying and you are certainly not wrong. However the issues go back further than that. The exporting of Wahhabism and variations started long before that and arguably was in part why the Soviets got involved in the first place.

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Wahhabism didn't really get a firm grip in Afghanistan until the advent of 'The Deal' (whereby Saudi Arabia would match the financial contributions of the US/UK dollar for dollar, all channelled through Pakistan's ISI).....The ideology came with the cash (& the madrassas etc.), Pakistan has been similarly, if less profoundly, affected.

Edited by Sgt.Squarehead
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On ‎11‎/‎8‎/‎2018 at 12:32 AM, John Kettler said:

Always loved the line regarding (near) universal right to serve. Went something like "It might be testing nerve gas on Pluto while sitting in a wheelchair..."

"If you were blind, deaf, and crippled, and insisted on volunteering, we would find something equally ridiculous to match, counting hairs on a caterpillar by touch maybe..."

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