Charlie Wilsons War

Charlie Wilson’s War directed by Mike Nicols of Catch 22 and The Graduate fame.
About US financial and CIA tactics backing of Afganistan factions to fight the Russians to bring a swift conclusion to the Cold-War. Brilliant story line involving very dodgy politician (Tom Hanks), party funder (Julia Roberts) and CIA agent (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and shady dealings in the senate and Pakistan.
As dark and funny as Catch 22 and hugely appropriate at the moment!

What Like they did in the Second World War and Korea etc?

As China invaded Tibet, surely the Dalai Lama has the right to fight, to get back his own country.

… and the Afgans etc, as the Americans (as the British had years ago, and Russians more recently) have gone into Afganistan. Let us not be too high and mighty here.
Let us also not forget taht the Americans backed and trained the likes of Bin Laden in the first place.

The Delai Lama isn’t revered worldwide, but is particularly beloved by the Americans, probaly because all they see is the spiritual crap.

I was watching (coincidentally) the brilliant Charlie Wilsons War earlier, and I can’t believe how appropriate and forseeing that film is to this current situation. The end comment of “They were glorious and they changed the world… and then we f**ked up the end game” seems especially apt.

I get entirely what is being said in some of the above posts, no nation is any better than the other in the respect of moralising about others and their practices.

Wouldn’t make much difference, won’t increase the span/load width at all but will make it slightly shorter if anything.

I’m not sure Mawgan’s example is a particularly good one to look at for how things should be, during restoration an awful lot of stuff was removed and dumped to save weight (it was to be heli lifted at one time), most of the interior was sourced again from ‘756 but I can’t remember most of the mechanical bits being reinstated. And that is before you consider the RAF spares stripping when it arrived in ’81.
At least you know that the Manchester one was taken straight out of service and preserved without any stripping or fiddling.

Ah right, I didn’t see the programme, could it be something to do with modificaions and certification to the airframe – though with a ruddy great spinning barrel strapped to the underside I don’t spose that would enter into it!

The OP is talking about Air-to-Air shots don’t forget.

I must admit I’ve just noticed that, yes the Sigma is way too big for that.
But for airshows it is very god.

I think the Netherlands has stopped as well Pagen.

Oops hadn’t realised, had a flight on a Dutch P-3 in 2001 and some of the bods were National Service, I guess as you say that the Armed Forces are just too small to cater for it now, combined with an ever growing population.

Jim, not sure about just missing it, I was born 11 years after it ceased, so missed it by 30 years!