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America is no longer guaranteed military victory. These weapons could change that.
The Washington Post ^ | August 16, 2016 | David Ignatius

Posted on 08/17/2016 5:36:21 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

The fight against the Islamic State may get the headlines. But it’s the military threats from Russia and China that most worry top Pentagon officials — and are driving a new arms race to deter these great-power rivals.

This question of how to deal with Russian and Chinese military advances has gotten almost no attention in the 2016 presidential campaign. But it deserves a careful look. The programs begun in the waning days of the Obama administration could potentially change the face of warfare, in the United States’ favor, but they would require political support and new spending by the next president.

A drive to build exotic versions of conventional weapons may sound crazy in a world that already has too much military conflict. But advocates argue that strengthening U.S. conventional forces might be the only way to avoid escalation to nuclear weapons if war with Moscow or Beijing began....

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Government; Russia
KEYWORDS: armsbuildup; china; counterterrorism; gwot; military; russia; usmilitary; weapons
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To: coloradan
How can you be so sure their first priority isn't Russia, also

Good catch. And you're right, the democRATS priority is anywhere else BUT the United States.

41 posted on 08/17/2016 8:08:46 PM PDT by Ouderkirk (To the left, everything must evidence that this or that strand of leftist theory is true)
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To: Rome2000
Can you imagine the type of soldier that would be in an army with SHRILLARY! as CIC?

A queer one?

42 posted on 08/17/2016 8:11:11 PM PDT by ROCKLOBSTER (RATs and RINOs......same thing.)
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To: SandRat
No. Before WW I, WWII, and Korea, the US military was relatively small, ill-equipped, and ill-trained for combat.

With the development of nuclear weapons, delivery systems, and an aggressive strategy by the Soviets, the US resolved to avoid the need for nuclear war by maintaining its conventional military forces and not getting caught unprepared. This more or less continued for the next five decades and led to victory in the Cold War.

Having an edge in military technology and weapons systems is an important element of US national strength. Such advantages help to deter adversaries and strengthen our alliance system. In the international marketplace, American weapons are the most expensive but also the most effective and reliable.

In consequence, the side with American weapons, American military technology, and American support usually wins. When the right kind of people are in charge, that helps make the US a preferred ally and a feared enemy.

43 posted on 08/17/2016 8:50:20 PM PDT by Rockingham
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

And yet America’s greatest threat remains political/social rot from the inside.


44 posted on 08/17/2016 9:47:37 PM PDT by Jack Hammer
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To: RedWulf
Yes, the P-51 was awesome, but it didn't really become effective until it was mated with the Merlin engine, and that happened later. Also, design didn't initially equal numbers. The fact is that we had to ramp up production rapidly (remember Rosie the riveter?). We weren't prepared enough at first.

For reference, the instructor of the course I mentioned was a P-51 instructor in WW2, was the 3rd pilot hired by United Airlines when they began operation in the '30s, flew everything along the way from the DC-3 to the DC-10 in which he retired as captain, and he personally knew a slew of aviation legends along the way, including Lindbergh, Sikorsky, etc. He had well over 30,000 flight hours when he retired. He was unequivocal in his opinion that we entered both world wars, as well as to a lesser extent Korea unprepared because we always draw back down too far in between.

Other instructors in the aviation program I was in included a former B-52 commander who flew numerous nuclear weapons test missions in the South Pacific, several Air Force and Marine Corps colonels, some of whom flew in combat in Vietnam and one who recited his experience sitting in an A-4 Skyhawk on a carrier deck, ready to launch loaded with nerve gas bombs and aimed at Cuba, during the Cuban missile crisis. All of them held similar opinions that we have a tendency to relax our defense posture far too much during "peacetime", only to be unprepared when the next war hits.

45 posted on 08/17/2016 10:02:44 PM PDT by noiseman (The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.)
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To: Rome2000

Can you imagine the type of soldier that would be in an army with SHRILLARY! as CIC?>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The entire upper echelons of US military command would be filled with LGBT and gay military staff who are also mostly racial minorities.

Every ship in the US Navy would become the USS Fellatio.

The entire military would be ruled by political correctness as measured by Hillary’s foot rather than the laws of the People and the Constitution.

America as we know it would cease to exist, no more freedom, only enslavement of the citizens.The light of the world would be extinguished.


46 posted on 08/18/2016 2:45:02 AM PDT by Candor7 ( Obama fascism article:(http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/05/barack_obama_the_quintessentia_1.html)
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To: opus1; redleghunter; Springfield Reformer; kinsman redeemer; BlueDragon; metmom; boatbums; ...
Russia will not go to war with the US... unless we start it. The groundwork has been laid for that throughout the Obama administration with this absurd vilification of Putin. To lump China and Russia together may make sense in terms of theoretical weapons, but it shows a paranoid and unrealistic understanding of international issues in the real world.

Sounds like old Neville, while Putin has just done what real liberals would love to do to Christians:

Russia's Newest Law: No Evangelizing Outside of Church | Gleanings ...

Thousands fast after Putin signs law banning evangelism outside of ...

Which means that the state Russian Orthodox church now has even more power to deal with its competition. A return to the "good ol days." C h e k i s t s i n C a s s o c k s : T h e O r t h o d o x C h u r c h a n d t h e K G B

47 posted on 08/18/2016 3:27:09 AM PDT by daniel1212 ( Turn to the Lord Jesus as a damned and destitute sinner+ trust Him to save you, then follow Him!)
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To: nathanbedford
Russia’s superior new weapons The Ukrainian experience serves as a deadly analogue for what might happen to U.S. artillery should we fight the Russians or a Russian surrogate. New Russian firepower systems now outrange ours by a third or more. They have improved on our steel-rain technology by developing a new generation of bomblet munitions that are filled with thermobaric explosives. These munitions generate an intense blast wave of exploding gases that are far more lethal than conventional explosives. A single volley of Russian thermobaric steel rain delivered by a single heavy-rocket-launcher battalion will annihilate anything within an area of about 350 acres. Tragically, all of America’s steel-rain munitions — millions of shells and warheads — are gone, intentionally destroyed by the past two administrations in a sacrifice to the gods of political correctness. They agreed to give up all submunition weapons after other nations (which had no steel rain) signed a treaty banning such weapons because they produce too many duds that remain on the battlefield and pose risks to civilians. Russia, China and Israel believed they had real wars to fight and ignored the treaty. As a result, a Russian heavy-rocket-launcher battalion firing steel rain produces a lethal area at least five times greater than a U.S. MLRS battalion firing conventional high-explosive warheads. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/russias-superior-new-weapons/2016/08/05/e86334ec-08c5-11e6-bdcb-0133da18418d_story.html?tid=a_inl&utm_term=.3721b766703f
48 posted on 08/18/2016 4:49:23 AM PDT by daniel1212 ( Turn to the Lord Jesus as a damned and destitute sinner+ trust Him to save you, then follow Him!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Very interesting article


49 posted on 08/18/2016 5:44:34 AM PDT by StoneWall Brigade ( America's Party! Tom Hoefling/Steve Schulin 2016)
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To: RedWulf
That’s right, we built the P51 in 102 days. America was rocking aviation before we got into WW2.

Possibly because NAA was allowed to get on with it without every officer on the procurement board inserting his own "requirements", and without the requirement that there be a supplier or subcontractor in every Congressional district.

50 posted on 08/18/2016 5:53:19 AM PDT by PapaBear3625 (Big government is attractive to those who think that THEY will be in control of it.)
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To: Rebelbase

Spiffy. Looks almost like my Ruger MKIII Target pistol. Just what the heck is that?


51 posted on 08/18/2016 6:23:34 AM PDT by SkyDancer ("They Say That Nobody's Perfect But Yet Here I Am")
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
America is no longer guaranteed military victory.

Oh?

Just when WERE we?

52 posted on 08/18/2016 7:02:34 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: AndyJackson
Killing a bunch of folks isn't a victory.

Maybe not; but it's a darned good start!

53 posted on 08/18/2016 7:03:34 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: mowowie

#GLM!



54 posted on 08/18/2016 7:06:18 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Elsie
 

 

2 Chronicles 7:14

If my people, who are called by my name,
shall humble themselves,
and pray, and seek my face,
and turn from their wicked ways; ,

then will I hear from heaven,
and will forgive their sin,
and will heal their land.

55 posted on 08/18/2016 7:10:50 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: SkyDancer

Birdman Nuke 50.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_XX2lIT1tQ


56 posted on 08/18/2016 7:11:48 AM PDT by Rebelbase (Vote Against Oppressive Humidity!)
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To: noiseman
Other stupid things.

Washington Naval Treaty

Showing the Japanese how to Use an AircraftCarrer and a surprise air attack in a War-Game against the Panama Canal

57 posted on 08/18/2016 7:19:24 AM PDT by SandRat (Duty - Honor - Country! What else needs said? was let used as the NM reporter car)
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To: Elsie

August 1945?


58 posted on 08/18/2016 1:47:36 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (You cannot invade the mainland US. There'd be a rifle behind every blade of grass.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Psalm 20:7

Some trust in chariots, and some in horses:
but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.


59 posted on 08/18/2016 2:10:46 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

We could win any war no matter what disadvantages we started with - except for leadership.
And our leaders have stupid ideas about rules for wars that effectively mean we can’t win.
So, no matter what advantages we DO have, we won’t win.


60 posted on 08/18/2016 2:25:31 PM PDT by Little Ray (Freedom Before Security!)
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