Affentitten

I'm not quite getting the logic of the CIA saying that the USSR made a bigger sacrifice than they actually did.

They knew how to build them back then.

As a tree-hugging liberal gay man, I can't do anything else.

See my post where I say that I believe there were weapons there. Shows how much you have actually been reading the debate. I think you're undergoing your own scenario fulfilment.

Yes but they are quibbling over the fact that it is not still afloat.

You are grasping at narrower and narrower straws of supposition. You've convinced yourself of this "Same van" theory based upon a comment from one member here. It's not mentioned in the transcript or any of the analysis since then.

Similar also to the video from the A10s near Basra that showed them shooting up British APCs. They basically convinced each other they were seeing enemy vehicles despite clear ID panels being displayed, exacerbated by them not relaying accurate info to the fire controller or listening to what he was saying.

How do you know that? For driving around in their own neighbourhood? Or for being in the wrong place at the wrong time? No blame hey on the gun jockeys making an over eager call? It wouldn't be so bad if this whole incident wasn't indicative of the wider WoT. Ooopps. Wedding party? My bad.

A van dropped them off. You've been there. You know how many vans there are. I think on the website it even says that the Reuters guy who was killed outright was on the phone to one of his drivers who had just driven off when it happened.

And that's the way it works in Baghdad and the ME in general. People tend to rush in and drag people into taxis, minivans etc. Whatever is there they pile them in and shoot off to hospital. Why? Because there isn't exactly a reliable 911 service. We've all seen it on the news. We've even all thought "Hell, put the guy down, you're making it worse." But it's a cultural thing born of neccessity. The video doesn't show them policing up weapons. It shows them trying to get the wounded guy in the van. For the record, I do believe the weapons were there or that there were armed men in the vicinity. Otherwise the journalists wouldn't have been there in the first place. But I do think the video shows an over-eagerness to kill in vague circumstances and, as we have seen so many times, a certain railroad attitude with personnel convincing themselves of what they want to see and relaying partial information to their 'fire authoriser'. The radio chatter is unprofessional and loutish but pretty much what we've come to expect from cowboys. I do wonder about the massive PTSD time bomb that is ticking away for America.

If they are not wearing unforms they are illegal combatants, potential insurgents policing the scene and to be killed. If they are wearing uniforms they are enemy combatants and can be killed.... Four legs good.

Did Inuit people serve with the Canadian forces? IIRC Blackburn mentions having a native American batman.

Constitution, IIRC was not in commission throughout its history anyway. It's kind of a moot point. Both Victory (which does get the prize as the oldest commissioned warship and still serves as the 2nd Sea Lord's flagship) and Constitution are just sentimental relics. The Chilean ship certainly beats both of them in terms of active service. But where would they have been without Cochrane?!

And one would infer in many, many, many other cases. This one only came to light after 2 years of campaigning by a huge media organisation. Given the attitudes of all involved in the transcript, it was just another day at the office. It's all a depressing example of why the occupation went the way it did.

Bit more than that. Think of Gideon Force with Orde Wingate. That was one battalion of Sudanese and one of Ethiopians. They kicked the Italians out of the region.

JonS that confirms what I know. This was also a case of developing a slang that could be readily understood across the force, regardless of where personnel were moved. You didn't have to remember a person's name or a specific code word of the day. If you needed arty in a hurry, you knew who to ask for. The net you were using would dictate the level of asset too. I would also add in the use of "Minor" for each of those terms to refer to the next man down. As in Sunray Minor was the 2IC.

This was just one of many returns on Google when I was searching for that original incident in 2003 when 1st Cav troopers panic fired into a crowd of demonstrators. Thought it was worth adding here though because it also includes choppers and dead cameramen.

Is this really anything new though? This sort of thing has been happening since the start of the invasion. In fact it's largely because of this sort of careless killing that the USA et al faced such burgeoning opposition, armed and unarmed.

Some of it's going to be pretty hard to unravel anyway. For example, there were plenty of Aboriginals who fought in the Australian forces, but their ethnicity wouldn't have been recorded as there was no official segregation of the type seen in the US Forces. (Even though these men were not even classified as 'citizens' under Australian law at the time.) Likewise there were men from places like the West Indies who served in the British forces without any distinction being made of it.

But is it high enough rated for what you're running off it? I had the same problem when I put a new graphics card in - the PSU just couldn't supply enough amps(?) so the whole machine would fail in the PST phase.

Well you know women. They enthuse at the correct time no matter what their personal opinion.

Except that in reality the good old British barra boy would say "Two parns? Just unda. Awight?" So with the rounding up, the profit would be like a thousand quid.

But aren't you the boy racer who likes to thrash cars around? How much more threatening and environmentally damaging than trick cycling is.

Wow. I can't beleive the negativity. I thought the guy was awesome. I showed the clip to my kids and my Mrs and they were inspired by it. Like somebody else said above, it's better than sitting on your arse in front of the Xbox and stuffing Doritos in your face.

I just looked at the article. It says "Family practitioners' median annual compensation is about $180,000, according to the Medical Group Management Association, whereas orthopedic surgeons make $476,000. Increase compensation and redirect government training dollars to attract doctors to general medicine." The context of this section of the article is the increasing number of medicine grads opting for high status/reward specialities and a decline in those wanting to do general practice. I doubt that is a US only problem.