First on CNN: US drops largest non-nuclear bomb in Afghanistan
Dude, they killed one SF Man and the godsmack comes down! I like the style of this. Can you imagine if someone takes out a squad? Mattis will bring the B-52s back and start carpet bombing. Some towelhead is going to be glowing before this guy's out of office.
-James
This is interesting. When I was in Baghdad one of my Iraqi colleagues suggested that the best way for the USA to deal with the Taliban would be to drop a tactical nuke on them. I admitted that that would probably work to good effect, except that we Americans are way to kind-hearted to contemplate such an action.
Well…looks like there’s a new sheriff in town, eh?
· The MOAB is known as the 'mother of all bombs'
· The target was ISIS tunnels and personnel
Washington (CNN)The US military has dropped an enormous bomb in Afghanistan, according to four US military officials with direct knowledge of the mission.
A GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb, nicknamed MOAB, was dropped at 7 p.m. local time Thursday, the sources said.
Breaking News
Foreign journalists in North Korea told to expect a 'big and important event'
It’s the Day of the Sun! I imagine this is going to bigger than when BP took over the SOHIO gas stations, eh?
“Some speculate, however, that North Korea will seek to showcase its military arsenal in light of the ongoing standoff with the U.S. over its nuclear program.’
Some are speculating that NK plans to set off two nukes for the Day of the Sun (the birthday of NK founder Kim Il Sung) celebration: an atomic/ fission bomb and a hydrogen/ thermonuclear bomb. This will be intended to be a public display of strength and to cement the ultimate guarantee of NK sovereignty and independence (and the survival of the reigning Kim dynasty as NK’s rulers). Which is what nuclear weapons are of course. Once a country acquires nuclear weapons it automatically becomes way too risky a prospect to invade and conquer them to ever contemplate such a venture. Of course in practice during the post WWII era this means that competing counties have generally resorted to sneakier forms of warfare in order to avoid direct confrontations that could lead to nuclear war. Nevertheless, when a modern polity decides it wants to secure itself from overt foreign conquest in perpetuity, it develops nuclear weapons.
Foreign journalists in North Korea told to expect a 'big and important event'
The US military's solution for their ground forces to surviving nuclear warfare was dispersion.
The Taliban and Islamic State are dispersed, moving around in squad-platoon sized groups.
What exactly is dropping nukes going to do except to piss off everyone downwind? And since Afghanistan is in Central Asia, no matter which way the wind blows, you will piss off people you don't want to piss off.
You know, of course, since you've operated there, that that country is like fighting in God's own rubble pile—-so why anyone would make the landscape more daunting for counterinsurgency patrols by blowing ridge lines in half and filling declivities with loose rubble, is a line of reasoning that escapes me.
The bomb wasn't large enough. It needs to be at least a megaton.
I was kidding. My point was that you need to either depopulate the entire country or leave them alone. I pick the latter. I see no point to dropping conventional ordnance on them.