That’s not an ‘Ohisa’, it’s a Yokosuka M7 Okha, meaning Cherry Blossom. It was indeed a suicide missile, to be launched by aircraft (Mitsubishi Betty mostly).

Those aircraft look excellent by the way, especially the Su-7. Is their interior equally well preserved?

Hmmm…. i hope i wasn’t too annoying 😀

Sure a nicely weird dream, but i hope usually you dream a bit more pleasant than about us bunch here. There’s so much you can dream about, you don’t have to put up with the people you already hang out on the web with.

There is a whole array of OpFP addons available, including full campaigns (some are crappy, some others are excellent) and various mods. A not-so good Vietnam mod already exists, there is one with a Chinese invasion of Taiwan (excellent weapons and uniforms, but still the same landscapes), and there are people working on a full Falklands-campaign including modified troops.

Lots of that stuff is available for free on various OpFPsites. I’ll post some URL’s later, but be warned… it will cost you a lot of time!

Haven’t got Resistance nor the Russian variant yet… for those, there are even more addons.

Originally posted by TTP
Arthur,

You tend to twist what people say to make points unrelated to the conversation, but in any event, of course there are homeless in America and bums sleeping on the street, remember I lived in New York, I never said that the US has reached the perfect state of equality, people do fall through the cracks, However Most Americans acknowledge that there should be protections for them, but the government should not be soley responsible for their welfare.

Well, my perception of one of my debating techniques is to quote some parts of my debating partner and put it in a different context in order to help my partner understand a view other than his/hers. But since that is dependent on the ability of the partner to look beyond the scope of his/her opinion, your remark that “i tend to twist what people say to make points unrelated to the conversation” is perfectly true as well. It’s not how intend it though.

I misunderstood your previous statement on homeless people though, and while i understand your desire to make welfare dependent on non-governmental institutions (like churches or the Salvation Army or the Nation of Islam) or benign individuals, i personally think it’s ineffective. For the simple reason that in economically troubled times, when welfare is needed more than in prosperous times, there simply is less willingness for individuals to spend money for social care. Your point is taken and understood though.

As for thre military being some welfare program for the poor, you have a valid point in that the whole military-industial complex does distibute wealth in the forms of jobs, but usually its high paying technical jobs as well as “normal” type occupations. Your totally wrong about one thing, the US military is a volunter force with pretty high standards for addmittance, just this morning I spoke to a security guard at work who wanted to join the Army, but was considered over-weight, also its fairly competitive to get a job in the military because alot of people want to serve. So the Military is not some clearing house for the un-educated drop-outs or “slackers”.

Fair enough, it’s something i had little knowledge about so thanks for explaining me. The thought had occurred to me because when my country switched from a conscript to a professional army, the social, educational, physical and moral level of our military dropped dramatically, especially in the lower ranks. You could well be right that American patriottism prevents that in some way for the US military. Even though i have to say the security personell serving on and around US airbases don’t really belong to the brightest people i know 😉

Your opinions of the US are formed by what you read in your College books and what you see on your TV, try coming here and see for yourself.

Apart from reading, i also like to travel so who says i’ve never visited the US? I found Americans to be one of the most accessible and friendly people i ever met, even though i have to say that not all of that friendliness was really profound. I base my opinions about all sorts of issues quite a bit more on the experiences, meetings, impressions and conversations i had myself rather than just reading stuff or watching television. Being able to understand five-and-a-half languages IMHO also helps me to get a rather well-balanced view at that. I have also visited the Middle East, China and a spend a lot of time in the former Soviet Union. I don’t think your accusation that my opinions are based on shallow sources is true. Of course you couldn’t know, so don’t worry as i don’t feel offended.

[/b]Millions of people from around the world fight to become US citizens every year, My father was one, If it is such a bad place why do they come, and more importantly why do they STAY……Better yet , why aren’t they trying to enter your great nation! (Whatever that is, don’t know where your from) Waiting for an answer. [/B]

Thousands of people apply to become Dutch citizen every month. Although i enjoy living in a prosperous state, nationality doesn’t mean much to me since i think a person’s identity has little to do with the piece of real-estate one is born in, or what sort of label is on his/hers passport’s cover. But it sure is a fact that many people try to enter my “great nation.”

I hope that’s enough of an answer for you.

Hoping to continue this rather civilised debate and as usual in pleasant disagreement,

Originally posted by TTP

…and the republicans who believe that the government should provide the minimum amount of benefits to insure nobody is sleeping on the street…

Euhmm…. nobody sleeping on the streets in the US? Didn’t think so.

Myself and a majority of Americans DONT WANT HE GOVERNMENT INVOLVED IN OUR LIVES, who knows better what my family wants or needs, Me or some bureucrat in Washington DC?/

Coming back to the beginning of this thread, this is IMHO the main reason why the US is becoming more and more impopulair around the world. To rephrase your quote:
“Myself and a majority of people around the world DONT (sic) WANT HE (sic) US GOVERNMENT INVOLVED IN OUR LIVES, who knows better what my family wants or needs, Me or some bureucrat (sic) in Washington DC” And if you add to this that American citizens can have some influence over who resides in Washington (if they bother to vote of course) while the rest of the world can not, you might understand it a bit. France doesn’t like to be told what to do by Washington any more than you do.

[b]Governmental involvement in health care, retirement, employment and other facets of life ALWAYS results in an inefficient costly product or service, and most Americans acknowledge this. Of course their are areas where only a government can accomplish things, such as defence, but for the most part services left to the private sector provide a better product at a cheaper price.

[/b]

To me it does appear that the military in the US is the social net with which the government maintains a grip on the social structure. Apart from the military services itself it caters for a large number of government-sponsored jobs, and the size of the non-conscript military itself means that it can serve perfectly as a means-of-last-resort to social and economical dropouts of society. In this i would like to extrapolate Mixtec’s statement that Roosevelt’s New Deal killed off socialism in the US, which was then followed by WW2. The Second World War marked the beginning of the US Government spending a huge amount of money on defense (initially necessary), and as i have stated before this is not just for defensive reasons. Geopolitical and social issues are IMHO also part of this.
It’s funny if you realise that Reagan is considered amongst republican circles to have been a great president. Why? Simple: because he increased government spending :rolleyes:

Re: EXACTLY MONGU…

Originally posted by Vortex
As to Arthur, he’s quite a communist here you know
😀 he romanticize it and call others too stubborn to see the good of it while himself too stubborn to see the bad parts of it…

I never denied the bad parts of the countries which called themselves Communist, and i never will. Horrible atrocities and disgusting experiments were undertaken under name of Communism.

However, i do like to point out that Western-style capitalism can only exist through at least some level of extortion and opression. Perhaps you refuse to see that, Vort 😉

[quote]
Get it through your heads…humans are naturally LAZY and GREEDY and POWER Hungry. [/QUOTE]

I know. That’s why i would support a government which would try to counter these human tendencies, rather than support them…

Mixtec, you’re technically right but only small parts of Russia were industrialised by 1917. Only Nizhny Novgorod, Moscow, St. Petersburg and parts of the Kuban were really industrialised in the years prior to the Great War. Apart from that, Russia was still a rural state where landowners had excessive power (both in wealth, as politically since the landowners provided almost 100% of the government officials). Serfdom was indeed abolished by 1880, but the vast size of Russia ment that a life independent of the landowner was for many Russian peasants absolutely impossible.

At best, it can be said that Russia did live through capitalism but only in small regions, and only roughly between 1900 and 1917. A nice what-if could be played with the failed revolution of 1905 though…

Originally posted by TTP
Rabie,

In any event if there were a competetition tomorrow to build a fighter/transport/margarita blender….A single corporation would probably do a better/faster/cost-efficient job than a conglomerate of many companies/nations etc

Yes, especially considering the US military aircraft development works not quite unlike the Soviet system. Separate design bureaus (Lockheed-Martin, Boeing) hand in designs, the best of which gets built by one of the State Plants… (Marietta and Burbank are not privately owned, they are Government).

Anyway, TTP, you have now proven excellently why a non-competetive economy is in theory more effective than a competetive one. Unfortunately this doesn’t work in practice, and that’s why the world is generally suffering from capitalism 😉