LORD ORION

Well, I'm upgrading me 333a this Thursday, and it's going to be a Celeron II 566. Why? Because like you, I'm on a budget Additionally, you have to love that 66Mhz FSB on the Celeron II. Considering it's a coppermine core which are all desgined to run at 100Mhz FSB, cranking up the clock is NOT a problem. So far I haven't seen a 566 Celery II that won't overclock to 100FSB, which puts your speed up to 850Mhz. Of course, a Celeron II overclocked to 850 performs more like a Pentium III 650E. But hey, look at the price difference. Mother board+ Celeron II = P3 650e alone. Additionally, plan ahead with you motherboard purchase. I'm getting a Tyan Trinity 400. Why? Because it has both socket 370 and slot 1. So, if you outgrow your Celeron in 4 months, you should be able to pick up a real coppermine P3 for a very good price. Just some thoughts..... Heh, and that's my geek speak for the day, now back to the front lines -Orion

Thank you Spook. I'm glad I found this place. It has a more mature and seasoned flavor, comapred to...oh what... pretty much any other mainstream gaming forum? Strangely though, I admit it is rather odd that my 1st post is in response to somthing off topic. Though I did play both demo missions before I posted As you mention, those merits are worth debating, however, my nutshell summary is not overly concerned as to wether it works or not, but more concerned if it can make a rogue nation "choose" not to fire a dated nuke at an american troop position. To me, XX billion is money well spent if it prevents some crack pot from using a nuke in a tactical situation, as this is a scarry situation reguarless if the nukes detoantes or not. This is the 1st step to the path of Nuclear Armageddon, the willingness to fire a nuke, reguardless of its effectivness. Of course, technically, I'm not an American tax payer, but I honestly wouldn't complain about implementation if I was -Orion

Please don't belittle my opinion because I'm a Canadian or a civilian *son of a soldier though, and did my time in Lahr and Ramstein as a kid* But I'm with JTMauney on this one. One of the real big problems with issues like this is the fact that the domestic political power plays interfere and cloud the true reality of the reasons for implementation of these systems. Part-1 Nuclear Super Powers Do you really think that for even an instant that Russia or any other insanely stockpiled MIRV capable country is concerned by ABMs???!!! It's all posturing on the civilian front. The true reality is it wouldn't mean anything to an ICBM capable power if it was their intent to "flatten" North America over a dispute. The cold hard fact is that a nuclear detonation in the atmosphere would create enough EMI to make a 100% ABM defence unrealistic. So frankly, anything you hear from politics concerning "The Russians or Super Power X" are concerned by these ABM developments are utter crap with a political agenda. Part II- Rogue Cruise Missles This system would be effective only for eliminating threats of dubious quality. AKA Chinese and 3rd World tactical *hehe, the official word for "short range" * nuclear missles. In other words, it's designed to protect positions in global hot spots where a nuclear cruise missle may be employed in a conflict. So here's the question you have to ask yourselves. If you pay close attention to the political chunder heads you voted into power *I admit they run the coutry great, but you have to admit they are utterly incompetent when it comes to defence* it would be painfully obvious they are unwilling to use nuclear weapons unless North America is attacked or their is a nuclear exchange with a NATO member in good standing *Come on, if someone took a nuke potshot at France, would the US really retailate with nuclear force hehe?* Rogue nations know this.... or may even think this (in case I'm wrong and the US would use nulcear power on a nation that fired a nuclear cruie missle at a troop position, but given how geographically close all those militant US hating nations are, I doubt they would risk it, especially since their would be civilian casualties by the US attack, and in rebuttal, the small nation could say it employed nukes on military targets only, which is another gloabal political powerplay of its own) So think for a second, if US forces were about to remove some insane militant from power, and he had the chance to prevent this with a tac nuke, would he use it? Maybe, maybe not.... but the point is, if he does, that's gonna be a pretty embarrasing blow. Forget all the political rhetoric that would insue about "We could have been prepared". Your real concern would be how the other militant nations would be watching. "Wow, Nation X nuked a US ground force and didn't get flattened" Enter the ABM. It makes employing a tac nuke by a rogue nation a dangerous gamble. More then likely they would second guess the idea, which is exactly what you want. It's not wether the nuke is shot down or the ABM fails that is important, it's wether the Nation has the balls to fire a Tac Nuke. Another dicator bitch slapped by the US wouldn't be anything too dangerous, but a nuke fired by a rogue nation would bring the world into a far more dangerous tension. Part3- Quick Final Argument I think I've covered most of the reasons for and why Nuclear super powers wouldn;t really care. This leaves us developing nuclear super powers such as China. I'll make it real easy for you. *NewsFlash* Their nuclear arsenal is going to proliefrate reguardless, every country in history has done it, the ABMs simply give them a mock reason for it. Heh, this is probably better then a nuke attack itself by these nations. The chunder heads in office will have a field day with "Cold War part II" and "Brinkmanship-The return". Why is this bad for the scared, finger pointing, clueless civilians in the US? Because the contry will be pratically paralyzed with defensive indecision as this rogue nations meet their agendas in their global locations. Sweet Jesus, people make it sound like the motivation for all countries everywhere is to get the capability to enter into a mutually destructive nuclear war with the US. Wake Up Please -Orion Edit Note: Yeah yeah, my spelling sucks, Im at work and will correct it later. Thank you for your concern. [This message has been edited by LORD ORION (edited 07-14-2000).]