The truth that has largely escaped reporters in the states is how the protests turned violent. The peaceful protesters turned ugly and raided an armory which led to the first airstrike on civilians. And much of what Ghadafi did early on was reactionary. It’s a shame we didn’t respect their sovereignty and let it die on it’s own. Now we’ve given life support to the devil, at least the movement that opposes Ghadafi is anything BUT peace loving and democratic. The revolution there will spread once it reigns because it will have oil to finance the further spread. People don’t realize this is an anti-Crusade movement directly opposed to the supposed christian evangelization and Zionist enchroachment of Arab sovereignty. This will get uglier before it gets better.

And we know damn well the Russians are very good with bureaucracy. They know the source of the manpads, don’t let anyone fool you. When the cold war cooled off they didn’t exactly lose their tiger stripes politically. They are still competing against the western nations for influence abroad. They just do it on a much more level playing field. Selling arms like the SA-24 is key to their influence.

Amazing that Colonel Gha-Daffy can spend his life arming his nation only to have his favorite toys destroyed in a matter of days. It’s a reminder that he is only there because he was allowed to exist.

These riots were all internal matters and no amount of guided bombs were ever going to save them from themselves. These people were fools to revolt and they deserve what they get. If they earn their independence then I have no problem with giving them support. Until then they are just a group of malcontents asking for handouts with little or no intent on doing their own dirty work.

Libya is at a crossroads. If a few units defect to the rebel side the leadership will change. The issue would then be who leads? The foreign troops would be treated inhumanely in such a scenario, treated like the dogs they are and made to be an example. I just don’t see these defects happening and the little dictator will probably survive.

Folks,

This sounds like one of the ideas the bean-counters had to replace the naval version of the F-111. To wit, take the S-3 or similar aircraft, fit the needed radar and fire control and a bunch of Phoenix missiles as a defence against Russian anti-shipping aircraft and missiles..

Your interceptor would be better off being laser based. The USN tried a slow mover as an interceptor and it failed. You weren’t initiating launch with much kinetic energy compared to a fast mover, sapping missile range. And you hurt your sustained turn rate, making a turn to the lauch vector seem like an eternity.

I wonder how this B-1 interceptor could be justified. I would imagine it would be necessary to scramble one from a base, otherwise fuel costs alone would be a huge penalty. And you would need several stationed throughout Taiwan, or they may never get an opportunity to fire off its missiles. That means rotating crews and keeping a crew in every one on alert status that’s a lot of seats to keep full.

The Russians are shifting more resources opposite China. If Taiwan was invaded that would mean China presents a good, juicy target on their backside for the Russians. China wouldn’t want to win Taiwain only to lose sovereignty.