Captured AR's In Iraq.

[Wezel]

Good thread guys. Lot's of good insight for an old fart like me.

[Vorpalis]

Unintended consequences are real. It happens a lot. Enemy of my enemy is my friend is a very short term game.

All of this has happened before, and will happen again... again... again...

[Fringe]

They're going to be around for a long long time.
http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL161.../370634271.jpg

This is a really cool picture. I would love to see more of the rifle and history. A testimate to the genius of the system indeed.

[cbx]

Seeing the post about stingers....makes me wonder what the he'll else they got?

Weapons like the javelin and m107, mk 19 you know legit force multiplier hardware.

Anyone know if that's the case?

[leibermuster]

Were arming them and training them all the time. CF is sending our boys to Jordan to train them and then again in Africa already on CBC, how long till they turn on the other side? With Saudi money they can get anything almost.

[Dave_M]

They'll be around for a long time.

If you look at the weapons used by guerrilla forces the world over you'll see a history of what nations have operated in/around those areas in the past. SE Asia is chock full of M16 variants, for example.








and these are all from regions with extremely wet climates. These weapons will be in the locality for a long time to come. Then of course, there's weapons smuggling which group like ISIS are very good at.

[MorphCross]

They'll be around for a long time.

If you look at the weapons used by guerrilla forces the world over you'll see a history of what nations have operated in/around those areas in the past. SE Asia is chock full of M16 variants, for example.





and these are all from regions with extremely wet climates. These weapons will be in the locality for a long time to come. Then of course, there's weapons smuggling which group like ISIS are very good at.

As backward as the use of child soldiers is to me, I have to admit the SBR equipment looks very functional and practical. *Shakes Head* I do have to wonder how old and worn out the bores or throats on those rifles are.

[MountainRaven]

Ww2 required nuclear weapons to get the Japanese to quit, because they wouldn't. Ever. They would fight till the last man.

LeMay's fire bombing was more effective at destroying Japanese cities (and much more horrifying - the atomic bombings are probably larger in the American psyche than the Japanese, which has a centuries-old pathological fear of cities and villages burning in firestorms), Soviet-occupied Germany was being turned into a communist haven, and Japanese troops in Manchukuo - the Emperor's best and brightest - were steamrolled in under a month by Soviet troops fresh from routing the Wehrmacht and SS. VJ Day happened when we and the Japanese both agreed that we'd rather see Japan occupied by the United States than by the Soviet Union: The only thing more hated than Americans were communists and Soviets especially. (Japan having joined the Anti-Comintern Pact, dba the Axis, more out of a hatred of communism and the Soviet Union than out of some admiration for the Aryan ideal, anti-Zionism/anti-Semitism, or love of German- and Italian-style fascism.)

In fact, many Japanese who have been critical of the United States in the post-war era haven't just lambasted us for letting Japanese war criminals off the hook lightly, but for taking up Japan's anti-communist torch in the Far East and continuing to prosecute the sorts of wars the Japanese had been fighting in the Far East since the 1930s. (Of course, there are other Japanese who are critical of the US simply because we beat them and they tend to hog the limelight, because we prefer to be aghast that anyone could think that we're the bad guy for beating them fair and square, but cannot stand to see what horrors we have wrought on some third party.) But I digress.

Point being, the nukes weren't for the Japanese. It was - like the firebombing of Dresden - for the benefit of Uncle Jo (Stalin).

ETA: More on topic, isn't the new Iranian wunderwaffe, the KH2002, a 5.56mm DI, AR-15-inspired bullpup?

[cbx]

LeMay's fire bombing was more effective at destroying Japanese cities (and much more horrifying - the atomic bombings are probably larger in the American psyche than the Japanese, which has a centuries-old pathological fear of cities and villages burning in firestorms), Soviet-occupied Germany was being turned into a communist haven, and Japanese troops in Manchukuo - the Emperor's best and brightest - were steamrolled in under a month by Soviet troops fresh from routing the Wehrmacht and SS. VJ Day happened when we and the Japanese both agreed that we'd rather see Japan occupied by the United States than by the Soviet Union: The only thing more hated than Americans were communists and Soviets especially. (Japan having joined the Anti-Comintern Pact, dba the Axis, more out of a hatred of communism and the Soviet Union than out of some admiration for the Aryan ideal, anti-Zionism/anti-Semitism, or love of German- and Italian-style fascism.)

In fact, many Japanese who have been critical of the United States in the post-war era haven't just lambasted us for letting Japanese war criminals off the hook lightly, but for taking up Japan's anti-communist torch in the Far East and continuing to prosecute the sorts of wars the Japanese had been fighting in the Far East since the 1930s. (Of course, there are other Japanese who are critical of the US simply because we beat them and they tend to hog the limelight, because we prefer to be aghast that anyone could think that we're the bad guy for beating them fair and square, but cannot stand to see what horrors we have wrought on some third party.) But I digress.

Point being, the nukes weren't for the Japanese. It was - like the firebombing of Dresden - for the benefit of Uncle Jo (Stalin).

ETA: More on topic, isn't the new Iranian wunderwaffe, the KH2002, a 5.56mm DI, AR-15-inspired bullpup?

interesting. I've never officially studied history of warfare, but that makes sense. Thanks.

[WillC]

THIS. We used to destroy our enemies. Now we give them Humanitarian Assistance and apologize if we might have offended them.

A great man once said "Crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women"

The actual quote was taken from Genghis Khan, and I find the original much better:
“The greatest happiness is to scatter your enemy and drive him before you, to see his cities reduced to ashes, to see those who love him shrouded in tears, and to gather to your bosom his wives and daughters.”

― Genghis Khan