News Stories

[Anh_Minh]

Maxim 5: Close air support and friendly fire should be easier to tell apart.

But then, you've got Maxim 4: Close air support covereth a multitude of sins.

[Bri]

When close air support comes a little too close:

The sound of an A-10 strafing is downright eery. It's like sounds like some primordial creature. It's up there with the jericho trumpet of the Stuka.

[Roger Rambo]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

The F-16 can't loiter around very well, nor is it good for slow, and low passes. The F-35 may or may not be good at the role, but it can hover, which might make it viable, if costly (in fuel) replacement for the A-10.

That sounds a bit precarious to me honestly. My understanding is that VTOL aircraft are actually kinda delicate to critical damage due to how their engines are built/placed in the aircrafts center mass. I doubt an F35 VTOL would be able to fly to base after a hit like this.

Originally Posted by Bri

The whole multirole aircraft philosophy is a cost saving operation. Roughly 3/4 of the total lifetime cost of an aircraft is in operations and the support infrastructure. Reducing the number of aircraft types in service leads to economies of scale and less duplication of support networks.

The problem is that multirole designs lead to suboptimal performance in some areas as the design is inherently a compromise between different and sometimes conflicting battlefield requirements. It doesn't help that the Air Force doesn't consider CAS as their core business, so that role's requirements have not been a major factor in the F-35's specs.

That philosophy can only go so far though. The differences between a regular Jet and a VTOL is pretty big. Yet creating a common platform for both aircraft has been one of the goals of the F35 program. Multi role isn't a bad idea in theory, but I think they went overboard in trying to include a Harrier replacement in this program.

[SaintessHeart]

Wall Street’s most photographed trader defends NYSE photos

Fact: The broker community that remains has been forced to reinvent itself, cultivate new and old client bases, and create a model that makes it invaluable to the financial community. This model incorporates transparency, communication, honesty, integrity, speed, agility and people skills, all of which exist in humans, not in algos or robots.

Islamic State seizes one third of Syrian town Kobani: monitor

(Reuters) - Islamic State fighters have seized more than a third of the Syrian border town of Kobani despite U.S.-led air strikes targeting them in and around the mainly Kurdish community, a monitoring group said on Thursday.

The commander of Kobani's heavily outgunned Kurdish defenders said Islamic State controlled a slightly smaller area. However, he acknowledged that the militants had made major gains in the culmination of a three-week battle that has also led to the worst streets clashes in years between police and Kurdish protesters across the frontier in southeast Turkey.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the country's civil war, said Islamic State - still widely known by its former acronym of ISIS - had pushed forward on Thursday.

"ISIS control more than a third of Kobani. All eastern areas, a small part of the northeast and an area in the southeast," the Observatory's head, Rami Abdulrahman, said.

Esmat al-Sheikh, head of the Kurdish militia forces in Kobani, said Islamic State fighters had seized about a quarter of the town in the east. "The clashes are ongoing - street battles," he told Reuters by telephone from the town.

An explosion was heard on Thursday on the western side of Kobani, with thick black smoke visible from the Turkish border a few kilometers (miles) away. Islamic State hoisted its black flag inside the town overnight and a stray projectile landed 3 km (2 miles) inside Turkey.

The sound of a jet flying overhead and sporadic gunfire from the besieged town was audible.

The United Nations says only a few hundred inhabitants remain in Kobani but the town's defenders say the battle will end in a massacre if Islamic State overruns the town, giving it a strategic garrison on the Turkish border.

They complain that the United States is giving only token support through the air strikes, while Turkish tanks sent to the frontier are looking on but doing nothing to defend the town.

Twenty-one people died in Istanbul, Ankara and the mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey on Wednesday in the clashes between security forces and Kurds demanding that the government do more to help Kobani.

In Washington, the Pentagon cautioned on Wednesday that there are limits to what the air strikes can do in Syria before Western-backed, moderate Syrian opposition forces are strong enough to repel Islamic State.

Islamic State has also seized large areas of territory in neighboring Iraq, where the United States has focused its air attacks on the militants.

President Barack Obama has ruled out sending American ground forces on a combat mission, and Secretary of State John Kerry offered little hope to Kobani's defenders on Wednesday. "As horrific as it is to watch in real time what is happening in Kobani ... you have to step back and understand the strategic objective," he said.

TURKISH UNREST

In Turkey, the fallout from the war in Syria and Iraq has threatened to unravel the NATO member's delicate peace process with its own Kurdish community.

Following Wednesday's violence in Turkey, streets have been calmer since curfews were imposed in five southeastern provinces, restrictions unseen since the 1990s when Kurdish PKK forces were fighting the Turkish military in the southeast.

Ankara has long been suspicious of any Kurdish assertiveness which puts itself in a tough position as it tries to end its own 30-year war with the outlawed PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party).

Kurdish leaders in Syria have asked Ankara to help establish a corridor which will allow aid and possibly arms and fighters to cross the border and reach Kobani, but Ankara has so far been reluctant to respond positively.

Saleh Muslim, co-chairman of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Syria, met Turkish officials last week, Kurdish sources said, but the meeting was not fruitful.

The PYD annoyed Turkey last year by setting up an interim administration in northeast Syria after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad lost control of the region. Ankara wants Kurdish leaders to abandon their self-declared autonomy.

PYD's co-chairwoman Asya Abdullah told Reuters earlier this week that this demand was not acceptable to Kurds. "We told Turkey that it is not possible for us to take a step back," she said by telephone from Kobani.

President Tayyip Erdogan says he also wants the U.S.-led alliance to enforce a "no-fly zone" to prevent Assad's air force flying over Syrian territory near the Turkish border and create a safe area for an estimated 1.5 million Syrian refugees in Turkey to return.

Turkey has also been unhappy with the Kurds' reluctance to join the wider opposition to Assad.

On the Turkish side of the frontier near Kobani, 21-year-old student Ferdi from the eastern Turkish province of Tunceli said if Kobani fell, the conflict would spread to Turkey.

"In fact it already has spread here," he said, standing with a group of several dozen people in fields watching the smoke rising from west Kobani.

Turkish police fired tear gas against protesters in the town of Suruç near the border overnight. A petrol bomb set fire to a house and the shutters on most shops in the town were kept shut in a traditional form of protest against state authorities.

Kurdish anger over Kobani has also revived long-standing grudges between the PKK sympathizers and Turkish Islamist groups that are linked to the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon and which now appear to be siding with Islamic State.

In Diyarbakir, Turkey's biggest Kurdish city, five people were killed in clashes on Monday and Tuesday between Islamist groups and PKK supporters, a senior police officer said.

[hawkeyesvn]

once again, IS is showing how capable they are in combat. Despite fighting against a force with air support, they still manage to gain advantage. Either the Kurdish forces suck incredibly or IS must has some amazing commanders/masterminds for their battle plan

[kyp275]

Originally Posted by hawkeyesvn

once again, IS is showing how capable they are in combat. Despite fighting against a force with air support, they still manage to gain advantage. Either the Kurdish forces suck incredibly or IS must has some amazing commanders/masterminds for their battle plan

It's neither. There's no "air support" in any meaningful sense of the word. There are the out-gunned Kurdish forces, and the there are the sporadic bombardment that are not coordinated with the ground elements.

There are no FACs embedded with the Kurdish units coordinating strikes, nor could they call for CAS against ISIS forces. Hell, the air campaign isnt even designed to protect the Kurds.

[SaintessHeart]

I think US is trying to extract concessions from Turkey or the less cooperative Mideast states before they send in the Marines.

[SeijiSensei]

Marines? No, I don't think so. The American public has little interest in watching even more of their sons and daughters die in Iraq.

[Ithekro]

"Little interest" may or may not have any meaning depending on the practial nature of the conflict and the requirements of various alliances.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

Marines? No, I don't think so. The American public has little interest in watching even more of their sons and daughters die in Iraq.

I think that is about time - sometimes I am quite disgusted by the headline news of the local papers showing "participation in xxx conflict" when we ex-servicemen know that our military is only there for a photo op while NATO is the one gunning down those serpent-tongued fundamentalists seeking to establish a religious supremacy.

Then again, those countries in the mideast are too politically paralysed or militariliy inept to fight these extremists; I guess we REALLY need to put boots on the ground this time. Or at least some FACs.

[KiraYamatoFan]

Originally Posted by maryenault

I don't know why the rest of the world have to make a fuss about Japan having a war shrine. The people are dead, they are not worshipped. Many of them may have done horrible things as soldiers, but is allowing them to rest in peace too much to ask?

Only China and the Koreas are making a fuss; it's more of using that an excuse to display overzealous nationalism. Most of the countries that were at war against Japan don't give much of a shit these days although Japan hurt several other countries in various ways during WWII.

On a personal front, I genuinely think it's stupid to throw toys out of the pram over a place that was only built to allow the dead to rest in peace and existed long before WWII. Who the fuck are we to say, as mere mortals, who does and who doesn't deserve eternal rest? As far as I'm concerned, only the Supreme Being (if you believe in one) should decide that, never humans.

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by maryenault

I don't know why the rest of the world have to make a fuss about Japan having a war shrine. The people are dead, they are not worshipped. Many of them may have done horrible things as soldiers, but is allowing them to rest in peace too much to ask?

let me ask this,

If germany built a WW2 Memorial to the Dead that includes Hitler, Goebbel, Eichmann and the guards of auschwitz and every concentration camp. What do you think the world's response would be?

[Ithekro]

If it also included all the soldiers they lost in not only that war, but all German wars, I don't think anyone would overly care aside from the Jews who are very touchy about it.

[JokerD]

Since the class A criminals were judged and killed (or died) after the war (ie not fighting for the emperor), can they be counted as being killed as a result of fighting for the emperor?

But yes, in a way, the english language does describe them as being worshiped as god (kami) In an ancestor worship kind of way, I think?

Personally I think it's more troubling that some narrative in Japan, even official ones, say that their invasion of SE asia was to liberate them (well, us) from the western colonial powers then a grab for resources and empire building for the Japanese home islands.
On the other hand, I don't see Japan being imperialistic and invading other nations again. That age of history is simply over for any country, not just Japan. (unless you are a superpower, but that's a different discussion)

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by JokerD

On the other hand, I don't see Japan being imperialistic and invading other nations again. That age of history is simply over for any country, not just Japan. (unless you are a superpower, but that's a different discussion)

My late grandfather thinks they are invading us with anime and manga. He disliked me watching Ronin Warriors back then.

I guess some people can't let their grudges go. Then again, I don't mind her physically invading me.

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by JokerD

Since the class A criminals were judged and killed (or died) after the war (ie not fighting for the emperor), can they be counted as being killed as a result of fighting for the emperor?

But yes, in a way, the english language does describe them as being worshiped as god (kami) In an ancestor worship kind of way, I think?

in a way they did die for their Emperor. Their death took all the responsibility fro the war with them to their graves. Letting Hirohito completely off the hook for his responsibilities of the war.

[Sugetsu]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

Ahem thats a pretty disturbing pic... How old is that 10 or 12?

[hawkeyesvn]

Just pretend that she's actually a 200 yrs vampire and everything will be fine.

[Sugetsu]

^ i could do that, but then what do i tell my coworkers if they see me looking at that pic?

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

Originally Posted by JokerD

Since the class A criminals were judged and killed (or died) after the war (ie not fighting for the emperor), can they be counted as being killed as a result of fighting for the emperor?

But yes, in a way, the english language does describe them as being worshiped as god (kami) In an ancestor worship kind of way, I think?

Personally I think it's more troubling that some narrative in Japan, even official ones, say that their invasion of SE asia was to liberate them (well, us) from the western colonial powers then a grab for resources and empire building for the Japanese home islands.
On the other hand, I don't see Japan being imperialistic and invading other nations again. That age of history is simply over for any country, not just Japan. (unless you are a superpower, but that's a different discussion)

There are those who still insist that the British empire militarily supported the export of Opium to China because they need to protect FREE TRADE. That they aren't drug lords, they just want to protect capitalism and the Free Market System.

In the end my point is that Japan has done everything they could to right the wrongs, and I can't see any further arguments against the Japanese people as anything but excessive. They have done more than most already, if you want them to do more, then everyone else also have old debts they are all suppose to be paying.