Stalins Organ
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Posts posted by Stalins Organ
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so you're saying the Israelis really need to use something better than WP if they are trying to kill civilians?:confused::eek:
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Yeah - "Greek fire" was a Byzantine weapon....but of course het Byzantines called themselves Rom,an (Rhomanoi in Greek I think), and used Latin as their official language although we are told that Greek was the day-to-day speech.
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As an aside the following is from a wargame rule writer of some note who is currently designing a set of low-scale rules for modern warfare (which I shall refrain from mentioning so as to not breach the forum rules....)
Now that a few facts are emerging (from unofficial IDF and West Bank sources) it looks like this time the Israelis got quite a lot more right than last time.
1) They achieved surprise by attacking 3 days earlier than expected, with simultaneous pre-dawn air strikes on the homes of Hammas leaders and Hammas installations before they could be evacuated.
2) They kept all the reporters and cameramen back on the border and have published nothing of their troop movements. Combined with the air strikes on Hammas command, this left the surviving Hammas leadership completely in the dark about what is going on.
3) Instead of sending untrained reservists straight into action (as in Lebanon), they gave them a week's intensive FIBUA training before committing them.
4) Despite the demonstrations in London, they had prelocated the majority of leadership, troop and logistics targets with the unstinting aid of the Palestine authority's defence forces - eager for revenge for the Hammas coup.
5) Dense fields of mines and IED in scrubland were burnt out with WP.
6) Suicide attacks were prevented by an even more ruthless than usual policy of shooting at any civilians including children that approached Israeli troops. I doubt if this was ordered explicitly, just an understanding established as to what should be done. There were no cameramen present to record it and it will be automatically denied.
7) Air targeting was not restrained by considerations of collateral damage. The guided bombs used were 1,000 and 2,000 pdrs (compared with rhe 500 pdr Paveway 4 the RAF is now limited to). Hits on a couple of mosques produced violent secondary explosions, in one case with burning rockets exploding high into the air.
8) Early on, there was an attempt to kidnap a lone Israeli soldier in a house previously cleared, a camera dog introduced into a tunnel found was heard being shot at in another house 100m away, which was then stormed. Extensive tunnels have since been found in most BUA - something I have to cover in ##### ###...
9) Leaflet drops calling on civvies to get away from Hammas sites and explosive stores produced some hurried mass evacuations from places that were then bombed producing secondary explosions.
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I don't think thepress is turning a blind eye to Palestinian crimes - there hasn't been a suicide bomb there for a few years, and every time casualties are mentioned here both sides are always given - 1300+ Palestinians , and 13 Israelis.
However hte disparity in numbers speaks volumes.
Now as a "pragmatist" I see nothing surprising in the numbers - and they are exactly what the Palestinians want - espcuially the hundreds of civilian casualties. They know they cannot defeat Israel by themselves, therefore they sacrifice their own people to Israeli gunfire to put pressure opn outside parties - it helps fan the flames of Moslem extremism and ensures they remain the cause celebre.
How things would have been different had the Moslems taken the Palestinians into their countries in 1949, as Israel did the roughtly equal number of Jews expelled from the Moslem countries - but Moslem politics was such that they were never going to do that - the Palestinians were then, and remain now, sacrifices to restoring Dar al-Islam (Muslim territory, house of peace) to hte fold.
The world is divided into 2 areas - Dar al-Islam, and and Dar al-harb (house of war).....and htere's plenty of Moslems take that quite literally.....
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Ah...so airburst ground burn!! So it is a submunition - the submunition in question being WP soaked felt wedges - no wonder people are upset about it (and WP in general of course)
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Unless of course the reasons for taking the kids would not stand up if challenged in court (ie. the reason is the name of the child and not proven physical abuse, neglect or recless endagerment by the parents).
Even in that case a lot of people would still see this case as justification for licencing of breeding rights........
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There's been heaps about Israel using airburst white phosphorus in the news for a week or more - ostensibly it's smoke and target marking - cant' see how airburst obscures much tho.
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Don't worry BF - one day you'll master humour.
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So the state kicked in their door and hauled the kids away without explanation. Something supremely ironic about that.
...except that the state didn't kick down their door...and given the circumstances only a moron would wonder why ....which is presumably why the family don't know
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Wow - I'd forgotten that - rebookmarked with added smphasis to help me not forget about it again!!
Thanks1
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In the series of Soviet Orders of Battle by Charles F Sharp (see here about 3/4th down the page) the volumes on Rifle divisions mention the scale of officer training - I forget the details but they're trying to turn out 200,000 junior officers in 1942 or some similar massive number.
Anyone with pre-existing experience & presumed reliability is considered particularly suitable - the NKVD combat units are disbanded for example & many of their NCO's promoted, political commisars are turned into "line" officers, etc.
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The Tu-22 that was shot down was on a recon flight, and was (apparently) crewed by instruction staff from a flight school somewhere.....which imnplies that the Russians don't consider their line pilots all that flash.
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Stunning powers of observation that taylor boy.
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Becoming a nun or a monk means you devote your life to the service. That means having a family and offspring is detrimental to the service as it diverts attention (and resources) from the service to the family. Giving up the possibility of having a family is a prerequisite for joining.
You can join a religous order after having a family.
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quite - a distinct improvement I'd say.
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That's not even close to the 180,000+ that are reported on various websites.
Either way you cut it, I don't buy that the journalist was motivated out of frustration over the number of deaths of Iraqi civilians resulting from the current war. Civilian deaths aren't exactly a new concept in that country. He's a little late with his protests if that's his main beef - which I doubt it is.
Ah...so his failure to commit suicide by Saddam invalidates his objection to murder by Bush....righ - good ol' moral relativism strikes again!
what a crock of carp - even if Saddam had killed millions then Bush's killing of thousands still ranks as a crime against humanity, and your summary dismissal of the protest is unjustified.
Crimes do not have to be compared to each other - each is evil in and of itself.
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What's the civilian death count at the hands of Saddam Hussein?
I think we figured it here a while back as about 50,000 over his entire reign.
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I would like to be able to say that my ingeniously subtle title for the thread provoked people more than the actual news item, but unfortunately all I got was a Kiwi. God knows those have the sense of humour of a sheep, which explains their intimate connection to them, so it quite doesn't count.
You'd prefer the sheep too if your nearest neighbours were 20 million Australians.
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Oi - my other name is Campbell....and I'm ashamed of Glencoe too....mainly becauuse of what happened to the culinary world when we let a few of them get away...but then I also have a McDonald grandmother so I'm in 2 minds about it all.....I also have a Charlie Campbell as an uncle....don't know if he's ever been to New York or not tho.....
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AFAIK there's nothing in the US constitution that says a kid has a right to a birthday cake is there? I mean even ones without f-wit moronic parents (even if trying to reform perhaps) dont' have that as a "right"?
So just what rights are being trampled here? and how is it that 1 supermarket with a vague sense of decency is suddenly "America"? Don't they have the right of freedom of speech too? and doesn't the right of freedom of speech include the right to not say something you find offensive?
Why can't the parents bake and ice the freakin' cake themselves? Heck even I could probably do that if I set my mind to it.
So many questions....so few "right" answers! :/
Australian humour
in General Discussion Forum
Posted
however if you suspect an Aussie is talking sh*t you may well be right.....