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MichaeltheGreat
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Apolyton Grand Executioner
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mooning the house that Ruth built.
Oct 1999 time: 21:26
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Everyone, CHILL NOW!!!!!!!!!!!
Spiffor - the primary purpose of a weapon isn't to kill, it's to make someone else aware of your capability to do so, and thereby to (hopefully) encourage him to modify his behavior.
Obviously, weapons can be used without any good reason, and used "for the fun of it" - just murder. We're not a species such that we can all safely pick flowers or argue and never let it get beyond words. Some ******* always comes along, and figures with a rock or big stick, he can take from you what you've worked for to feed yourself, and he can get stronger while you get weaker.
The Romans never had enough manpower to conquer the world - it was spread all over the place. They did have a precision and organization and an image created by their legions that went far beyond their physical ability to do damage. Often enough (depending on the enlightenment of their leaders), that could be used to dissuade enemies from attacking.
If delusional *******s like Saddam Hussein looked at more pictures like these, did a rotation at the National Training Center, or really took an honest look at the US' warfighting capabilities, Iraq would have had a vastly different history in the last 12 years.
People are dying? So what, frankly. People have been dying there every day for decades. Political prisoners, ethnic minorities, civilians affected by Saddam's cynical manipulation of sanctions and his obscene priorities of memorializing himself.
Why isn't a photo of a bag of wheat offensive? Food is the oldest weapon known to mankind. Ask any peacekeepers or support or military personnel involved in UNISOM I, UNISOM II or UNITAF, especially if they had to (because of their damned Rules of Engagement) watch as *******s with guns came along and stole food relief from starving Somalis - making those starving people load the only food that would save them and their families onto trucks, so the *******s could sell the food and buy more weapons. Any who resisted, argued too long, or loaded too slow, was shot to pieces, along with anyone nearby.
Weapons really suck if you don't have any, and someone nastier than you does.
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ColdWizard
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MOAB
Attachment: moabs.jpg
This has been downloaded 115 time(s).
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ColdWizard
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GBU-12 (on a Tomcat on the USS Constellation)
Attachment: gbu-12.jpg
This has been downloaded 113 time(s).
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MichaeltheGreat
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Apolyton Grand Executioner
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mooning the house that Ruth built.
Oct 1999 time: 21:26
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quote: Originally posted by Master Zen
Deterrence is always a secondary purpose. Weapons are made to kill, plain and simple. If it weren't so, none would take them seriously. |
Deterrence is the fundamental purpose. We spend hundreds of billions developing and deploying weapons to deter the USSR after WW2. We didn't have to kill them, and they didn't kill us.
A deterred enemy may become a future ally, or at least someone tolerable for co-existence. A dead enemy is a lot less useful.
Spiffor - "glorification" is part of that whole deterrance package. If something looks like a small cardboard box, it isn't very impressive. Big sleek phallic metal things with all sorts of shiny stuff hanging off of it makes people think, and react viscerally. The more they have that effect, the more deterrence works - assuming that whoever has the shiny phallic things isn't the murdering psycho in the crowd, in which case, everybody else better get them too. Unfortunately, that whole "look at all those toys" thing is something Saddam just didn't get - he'd rather cling to the delusion that the world didn't stomp his ass last time.
Ideally, none of this stuff would get used outside a practice range.
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Aro
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Ipanema
Jul 2002 time: 02:26
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From the Malvinas War:
(It's the "Antelope")
Attachment: antelope.jpg
This has been downloaded 124 time(s).
Last edited by Aro on 21-03-2003 at 09:39
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