Message posted by gary on March 24, 2001 at 10:51:51 PST:
I hate to haarp (heh heh) on the same subject, but having the helicopter work is only half the problem. The key is what mission does the V22 serve in relation to the overall mission of the DoD. Rumsfeld had changed the focus of the military to that of fighting a single war in Asia, to counter the military strength of China. If the V22 is key to the new mission, the project goes on. For political reasons, if it survives it will be in low gear, so no volume of hardware shows up until after the 2004 election. [The Whitehouse can't chance the bad press if there are many more accidents, which would be the natural state of affairs with any new project.] Rumsfeld wants smaller aircraft carriers and more UAVs. The trend toward UAVs would make sense since politically having body bags flown to Dover does not play well on TV. The V22 is geared to deliver troops, but the Whitehouse doesn't like to fight that kind of war. The prefered technique is to bomb the hell out of them and not finish the job (such as Desert Storm). To finish the job, you need ground troops, but the losses are politically dangerous. Now if you lose a UAV, well, it's only money... Speaking of Rumsfeld, I bought Dr. Strangelove on DVD. The similarities are striking... For you kids who are impressed with Mike Myers ability to play two or more rolls per move, Peter Sellers has 3 parts in this movie.
In Reply to: Outa' Here! posted by F105_THUD on March 24, 2001 at 0:39:54 PST:
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