US Politics Mega-thread - Page 7336

On April 13 2017 02:11 Wulfey_LA wrote:
The problem will be that in 3 weeks more #TrumpRussia stories will come out, more campaign crones will testify, and more legislation will fail. What happens then and Trump feels bad again? You know he will go back for the high he got off those missiles. Trump's insecurity is boundless. This will put the USA into a positive feedback loop of escalation with Russia in Syria.

GCHQ first became aware in late 2015 of suspicious “interactions” between figures connected to Trump and known or suspected Russian agents, a source close to UK intelligence said. This intelligence was passed to the US as part of a routine exchange of information, they added.

Over the next six months, until summer 2016, a number of western agencies shared further information on contacts between Trump’s inner circle and Russians, sources said.

On April 14 2017 01:56 Plansix wrote:
It isn't even a bomb meant for hard targets like bunkers or mountains. But I'm sure they will be able to justify dropping it in that area and say it did "massive damage".

On April 14 2017 03:06 LegalLord wrote:

Maybe he can start bombing golf fields to put the two together?

On April 14 2017 03:27 Wulfey_LA wrote:
What bothers me is how hard it is to get an accurate assessment of the how effective these prestige strikes are against their targets. Was the Shayret airbase attack successful? Did this MOAB really destroy the tunnels? The opacity lends itself to suspicion. The Trump spin was 20% of the Assad airforce ... but then more neutral defense websites and Tillerson said 20% of the 7th airwing.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/assad-u-s-missile-strike-fuel-syria-civil-war-article-1.3029925

On April 14 2017 04:15 a_flayer wrote:
I read that this bomb has like a 1 mile radius. That's insane, how can they be sure that everyone in a 1 mile radius is ISIS? Sounds like someone is doing a lot of generalizing...

On April 14 2017 04:27 TheTenthDoc wrote:


It's doubly insane because the non-ISIS individuals in the area are far, far more likely to be hit by the bomb because it's mostly designed for flat open areas, not tunnel fortresses.

A satellite look at the province made it look too mountainy for the bomb too, but that's just armchair and I have no idea where exactly they dropped it.

On April 14 2017 04:15 a_flayer wrote:
I read that this bomb has like a 1 mile radius. That's insane, how can they be sure that everyone in a 1 mile radius is ISIS? Sounds like someone is doing a lot of generalizing...

"The main attribute of the MOAB is that it causes overpressure," Dr. Adam Lowther, the director of the US Air Force's school of deterrence, told Business Insider on Thursday in a phone interview.

That overpressure, caused when the bomb detonates at a low altitude over its target, is designed to crush underground tunnels and bunkers like the ones often used by ISIS.

"The MOAB has a very narrow target set," a US Air Force official told Business Insider. "Basically," the official said, "targets in an environment like caves or canyons or clearing minefields" are ideal for the MOAB.

On April 14 2017 04:33 LegalLord wrote:
News from the Russialands suggests that the Syria Tomahawk issue is deescalating. Which sort of confirms the fact that all the scary rhetoric we saw in the past few days is going to blow over and we're back to trying to decide whether our president is incompetent or just working for the Russians.

Democrats are beginning to craft an economic message for 2018 that goes beyond the tempting, single-minded strategy of demonizing Donald Trump.

Licking their wounds after an embarrassing showing in November, Democrats vowed to charge into next year’s midterms with a proactive sales pitch to voters. While many, including party leaders, have fallen right back into the same anti-Trump pattern they say cost them 2016 in the first place, top Democrats now say they’re working on “a strong, sharp-edged, bold economic message,” as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer put it Tuesday.

Hillary was so mad she couldn't think straight. She was supposed to be focused on the prep session for that night's Univision debate in Miami, but a potent mix of exhaustion and exasperation bubbled up inside.

She'd been humiliated in the Michigan primary the night before, a loss that not only robbed her of a prime opportunity to put Bernie Sanders down for good but also exposed several of her weaknesses. How could she have been left so vulnerable? She knew - or at least she thought she did. The blame belonged to her campaign team, she believed, for failing to hone her message, energize important constituencies and take care of business in getting voters to the polls. And now, Jake Sullivan, her de facto chief strategist, was giving her lip about the last answer she'd delivered in the prep session.

"That's not very good," Sullivan corrected.

"Really?" Hillary snapped back.

The room fell silent.

"Why don't you do it?"

The comment was pointed and sarcastic, but she meant it. So for the next 30 minutes, there he was, pretending to be Hillary while she critiqued his performance.

On April 14 2017 04:30 Danglars wrote:


Business insider

It doesn't sound too mismatched for target. I mean this is Trump so of course all dials set up to 11.

The MOAB weapon is based upon the same principle as the BLU-82 "Daisy Cutter", except that it is larger and has a guidance system. The weapon is expected to produce a tremendous explosion that would be effective against hard-target entrances, soft-to-medium surface targets, and for anti-personnel purposes. Because of the size of the explosion, it is also effective at LZ clearance and mine and beach obstacle clearance. Injury or death to persons will be primarily caused by blast or fragmentation. It is expected that the weapon will have a substantial psychological effect on those who witness its use. The massive weapon provides a capability to perform psychological operations, attack large area targets, or hold at-risk threats hidden within tunnels or caves.

On April 14 2017 05:02 zlefin wrote:
yawn, bombs dropped in war zones; feels like it could easily be regarded as a total non-issue and ignored. But I guess it's soemthing to talk about, and explosions are cool.

On April 14 2017 04:48 m4ini wrote:


It is if they intended to destroy the tunnes/caves.

What you quoted is marketing talk. The bomb is effective against caves/tunnels due to pressure, yes - but not against the tunnels, but against what's in it. The primarily role is as "shock and awe" weapon, psychological warfare. Other than that, it's just a huge bomb - that's it. There's no clever "cave crushing pressure" mechanism to it, it's as dumb a bomb as they come.

The tunnels will actually be most likely unscathed for the most part. Not the people in them, again, due to the pressure, but the tunnels.

Here's some "none marketing talk".



http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/moab.htm

Don't get me wrong. I wouldn't mind at all if they throw it in a remote location if there's only taliban/isis around. I just would've liked them to own it - they dropped that bomb right there because that's where the green beret died. Which is fine, and also a powerful message, if they'd own it.

edit: explosion radius btw is 150m, not a mile - so it's not as bad is it sounds.

edit2: man, american articles on this bomb are ridiculous, quoting similarities to little boy because it had 15ktons. Either it's ridiculous sensationalism or people actually don't understand the difference between "tons" and "kilotons". That's where the mile radius comes from. They're literally quoting the bomb that hit Hiroshima as equivalent, which had that mile radius.