I am guessing either over Iran or Pakistan….those are the only two countries (maybe Syria), where it makes sense deploy this plane……If its over Pakistan, then no biggie….just like any loyal proxy, they would be more then happy to hand over the wreckage/remains of the plane/pilot….Iran though could be problematic….

Hey, that way they wouldn’t have to fight! 😀 😀 😀 J/K

Or they could just wait for the hostilities to be almost over with all the sides having depleted each other’s resources and will to fight and beat one of the survivors on his last gasp and claim victory….

Any truth to the following…..

US Denies French Fighters Emergency Landing Rights
By DAVE LINDORFF

Talk about fair-weather friends!

When nine French fighter jets and a weather plane from a French carrier taking part in a joint exercise with Canadian Naval forces in the Atlantic off New Jersey ran perilously low on fuel last Friday because of a freak storm that prevented them from returning to their ship, they figured, no problem. They weren’t too far from the U.S. mainland, and so they could just land at McGuire AF Base in southern New Jersey.

No dice, the Francophobe U.S. military told them. According to a State Department source, quoted in the Philadelphia Inquirer, they were denied landing rights at the facility.

Faced with the choice of ditching their planes or finding an alternative landing site, the French pilots, with the help of frantic State Department and Federal Aviation Administration officers, managed to arrange landing permission at the commercial airfield in Atlantic City, though this necessitated delaying and rerouting several commercial flights because of the number of planes that were coming in at once.

No national American media mentioned this stunning–and potentially life-threatening–breach of basic air etiquette by the U.S. military. And not for lack of knowing about it: many news organizations covered the whole thing as a humor item, focusing on the French pilots spending a night in the debauchery of America’s East Coast Vegas.

Even the Inquirer, which did report on the incident with at least a modicum of seriousness, failed to go to the Pentagon and ask the obvious question: Why were ten planes from a European ally denied emergency landing rights at a fully equipped and prepared U.S. Air Force base when they were in danger of crashing from lack of fuel? (I did make that call, and was referred to the media relations office at McGuire, where a spokeswoman denied that the French planes had been turned away-a direct contradiction of the story out of the State Department. She had no answer when asked whether the French pilots had requested permission to land at the airbase.)

It boggles the mind to think that this nail-biting incident could have been the result of Pentagon pique at France for having refused to go along with the Bush Iraq War plan, but one is hard-pressed to come up with an alternative explanation.

Even Soviet planes, at the height of the Cold War, weren’t turned away in emergencies.

And this was an ally.

At least the people of Atlantic City were gracious hosts to the plucky French pilots, reportedly offering them meals and hotel rooms.

One wonders what the American reaction would be if a French military airport turned away American pilots in similar circumstances-or what the French reaction would have been if the planes hadn’t made it safely to Atlantic City.

Dave Lindorff is the author of Killing Time: an Investigation

I think some of you have lost track of the ‘changes’ in pakistan post takover by gen zia ul haq around 1980. initially he was just any of the umpteen generals who had taken over power, corrupt, self-serving, but a loyal dog of the western interest. then he changed, was made to change by afghanistan and the continuing failure of the economy. arab-american project in afghanistan started and 1000s of hate filled madrassas blossomed in the pak countryside. govt educated receded and ground was taken over by zealots. the nature of pak armed forces also went a change with recruits full of zeal and eager to punish the infidels. by 1990 the makeover was complete. the US wisely cut itself loose from the liability and let them fester in their own problems for a decade. pak was tottering on the brink of economic collapse with 9-11 opened new ‘opportunities’ for them to rent themselves out as the west’s handyman in the region.

remember it their commandoes (SSG) who were in charge of training the taliban for the big fights, providing arty and C3I support. SSG also undertook the Kunduz airlift wherein US gave permission to retrieve their army officers before Gen dostum got into the city, but Pak ‘expanded’ the mission and 100s of hardcore talibs and al-qaeda were plucked to safety under the noses of the US airpower which had opened a safe channel for them.

throw in the nuclear smuggling racket wherein PAF C-130s and merchant ships were ferrying stuff as far away as libya and north korea (india caught one ship)

Its kind of amusing how a Govt and army can be in evil upto that level and still get anointed as the loyal dog to ferret out the al-qaeda. methinks there is a lack of ideas and commitment in the pentagon and white house – they are simply not prepared to
get down and dirty to bell the real cats – china, north korea and pakistan.

china – godfather of nuclear and missile proliferation. member of P5 and major economic partner. so they have consistently dared the others to call their bluff and
got away with it.

north korea and pakistan – ‘proteges’ of china and major beneficiaries of proliferation with US doing a wink-wink from the sidelines. biggest source of terrorists and zealots in east and south asia if not the world.

p.s. does anyone talk of catching bin laden these days ? or have the public been soothed enough not to care ? 🙂

iran , iraq , libya – mere sideshows to show the public ‘something’ is being done, grab
oil, prepare for vacating KSA etc etc.

israel – dont talk about them, israel has no nukes, has never conducted a test 🙂

india – biggest threat to world stability, “rogue” nuclear power 🙂

The bit about the SSG “commandos” training Taliban would make any highly misinformed Indian reporter worth their salt, taking luxuries by editorializing on subject they have no business writing about, really proud….As would the rest of the heap written up…..

Chicken out? Says who?

Well, according to the treaty, only France, the UK, China, Russia, and us can have nukes. We aren’t invading the UK anytime soon, nor China, nor Russia, not even France. So of course, by the treaty’s logic, our enemies would all be “non-nuclear” 😀

As for enemies becoming allies, if it worked with Pakistan, we may as well try it with Iran. We don’t exactly have anything to lose by at least not being hostile towards each other.

When was Pakistan an enemy of US’ along the lines of Libya, Syria, Iran or even Iraq…..US proceeded to unilaterally sanction it on several occasions, and in one instant immediately after serving as a loyal proxy, does not constitue an enemy in my opinion……

I wonder how it would stack up against a P-51…..

“2 choppers – custom built Harleys”

Custom built choppers and Harleys are two different things……Custom build choppers are build from the ground up, with the frame, fuel tank, front end, fenders, oil tank, motor, wheels and etc are either bought off the shelf or fabricated. And then all the components are put together to build the chopper…..

Harleys on the other hand are stock motorcycles manufactured by the Harley Davidson company, which are customized by the rider/buyer only in a limited manner, painting the fuel tanks and fenders or putting in a modified/personalized handle bars, moter, pipes, carbeurator and etc…..