Didn’t your watch have one of those nice bleeping alien-detectors? 😀

Oh, you’re welcome. Sometimes i just forget being an a$$hole 🙂

Too bad they didn’t show you the Phantoms. Perhaps you can find a contact at the 475WEG (that’s the unit which operates them) who can help you the next time you go to the Florida Panhandle.

Oh – and if you want a chance to still see some Navy QF-4’s, you have to hurry as the last conversion has been completed. No further F-4S’es are going to be modified, even though a bunch should still be available in climatised bags or hangars… of course, those are in great shape to become warbirds 😀

Another option is for you to put those pictures on your own site (you still have one, Cooper?) and then link to those images in your posting here. It will increase your traffic too 😀

Re: …in self defence Arthur

Originally posted by Vortex
So, Eastern Europeans should be ordered like a *bitch to shut up….of course unless you are one 😀
I haven’t hear an apology on that one….unless you agree, then what does that say about your so-called “Euro” attitude?

I agree that apologies should be in place, or at least an explanation. But it was a statement by Chirac (whom i absolutely dislike: after all, he’s a Frenchman and a right-winger too 😉 ), not a German or Dutch or Luxemburgian one. The French attitude is not one i like, but for someone from one of the smaller and less significant countries in the world, it sure has some resemblance to the current American attitude. Usually (but not in the ‘chance-to-shut-up’ case of course), French diplomacy is of a bit higher level though.

Re: man…

Originally posted by Vortex
Last i recall, ALL of eastern Europe are more pro-Americans than French or Germans….i wonder why?

When was the last time you were there, Vort? Amongst the people i’ve spoken with over the last years, the US has become less and less populair. But i guess you’re right, it’s after all cheaper to buy a government than it is to buy populair agreement.

Coming back to Kev’s original post:
I think it’s not that bad with American agression on this forum, except perhaps the pathetic showing off of testosterone by a certain claim-to-be-C-141-pilot-but-we-keep-waiting-for-the-proof-and-why-does-he-have-so-much-time (no names 🙂 ). Yes, i do agree that Vortex and Phantom sometimes come across rather hostile but i think that’s not so much of a problem either – especially with long-present posters one knows what one can expect (same goes for guys like Keltic, Gefore or me) and where one stands. Even the occasional insult is mostly topical and certainly related to a post, hence it fits in the discussion.

American hostility? Of course. But i can’t blame them for the attempts to counter European sarcasm 😀

Hey, they are simply adapting their own cultural level and historical background to match with those of their liberators.

(This war better ends quickly, i’m getting waaaayyy too cynical here. But it’s so easy. Oh so easy. So incredibly easy…)

Sick joke

And the US turns British soldiers into toast.

:devil:

Geforce’s post inspired me to the following… load up and fire if it’s crap (but please substantiate it!). The thought behind it: Tax Justification.

The nice thing about a welfare state is that everyone living in such a state understands that the government money is (at least to some degree – inefficiencies and such disregarded) well spent. It is automatically justified within the borders of that welfare state.

On the other hand, a government which prefers to spend the bulk of it’s resources on ‘defense’ needs some other way to justify it’s spendings to it’s population (after all, the people pay taxes which the state then spends). A military can be effectively used as a deterrence (as the US military during the Cold War) which certainly justified the money spent on defense for the tax payers. But with the end of the Cold War this changed for the US – even though paying taxes to support a huge military does seem to be a matter of pride for the US, one could argue that this would not be enough tax justification. Either the military could then be reduced in size (which did happen of course), or the military could be given a new purpose by using it for expeditionary purposes.

Fire away 😉