War on Terror

[Argonath]

How would you have gone about the war on terror? Don't just say "What we're doing now" or some stuff like that, but how would you implament your plan? what is your plan? How do you gather intel. on your target? You know where I'm going. . .

[LiberalsAreBabyKillers!]

I would focus all of the power in the army to just crush Saddam and thenm the isurgents, making the war fast but brutal to the enemy. I would crush them like cockroaches. Then stay until I had cleaned out the are or for a few years.

[Argonath]

good start, good start. But, there are more terrorists than just the ones in Iraq and Afganistan. How'd you deal with them?

[Guns R Cool]

We use strategical nuclear missile strikes on terrorist-laiden cities. Problem solved...with about 99% innocent casualties, but that war. Shit happens.

[WhiteAfricanAmerican]

You're asking a bunch of armchair commanders (and I'm including myself in this generalization, so no one needs to start popping gaskets)to develop something in a few minutes/hours that took about 20 men who have spent their entire lives studying this subject months to develop.

That doesn't make sense.

In addition, we get the luxury to look at this in hindsight. So any idea anyone presensts is not a "what would you have done differently" type scenario. It's a "Here's the exam, here are the incorrect and correct answers" kind of thing, with the person taking the exam flaunting the fact that they scored 100% on the exam.

There is not 'better way'.

[Argonath]

just got to ruin everything, don't you?

[Redneck]

We simply strap pigs to rockets and bombard the middle east.

[WhiteAfricanAmerican]

just got to ruin everything, don't you?

WTF is that supposed to mean? I'm being honest, aren't I?

[erichthewebguy]

Here's a more feasible question: What would you do if we were to invade Iran, North Korea, or Syria? My answer: "shock and awe" from beginning to end. Relentless 24/7/365 pounding. Never give them a chance to fire back.

Having said that, I am woefully unqualified to make any judgement about modern warfare strategy. But, I can predict that of the three countries named above, North Korea would be the bloodiest and toughest. The dictator there has the people SO far under his thumb that they have ZERO clue what the world is truly like outside of their borders. It would be akin to the invasion of Japan that thankfully never had to take place. Men, women, and children would fight us with zeal unseen in modern warfare until almost all of them were dead. The only ones who would not would be the ones imprisoned and tortured by the regime, and even in that case, I would hazard a guess that a good percentage of them would still defend their homeland.

[LiberalsAreBabyKillers!]

rather than using nukes with their fallout, add water to 3500 degree moltern steel en mass even a miniscule amount, as in a drop of water into a cup of molten steel, could destroy an entire large house. At least. Here's how it works. The steel is so hot, that it rips the hydrogens and oxygen atoms apart creating the perfect proportion of the two gasses to cause a very large explosion. If one were to spray a firehose into a vat of molten steel, the ensing explosion would be as powerful as a nuclear bomb, at leat. No kiding. I got this from a reliable source (chemistry teacher), so it's not a urban legend or something. Find a way to incorporate this into a bomb and let the bodies fly!

[Argonath]

Nuclear bombs would make the land we use later unuseable. It would be to radiated before we can rdiate it. Where's the McDonald's supposed to go? (sarcastic)

[Argonath]

We simply strap pigs to rockets and bombard the middle east.

why pigs?

[erichthewebguy]

rather than using nukes with their fallout, add water to 3500 degree moltern steel en mass even a miniscule amount, as in a drop of water into a cup of molten steel, could destroy an entire large house. At least. Here's how it works. The steel is so hot, that it rips the hydrogens and oxygen atoms apart creating the perfect proportion of the two gasses to cause a very large explosion. If one were to spray a firehose into a vat of molten steel, the ensing explosion would be as powerful as a nuclear bomb, at leat. No kiding. I got this from a reliable source (chemistry teacher), so it's not a urban legend or something. Find a way to incorporate this into a bomb and let the bodies fly!
You're absolutely right (with one exception, you would never approach the power of a nuke), but you are missing a few things. You need the right alloy and grade of steel (not particularly hard to do) and an ignition source to ignite the released gasses (again, not hard). The only hard part is that it's impractical to deliver said weapon. You can't deliver it by air, because the systems required to keep the steel molten quickly destroy the effeciency and usefulness of the bomb. You could deliver it by land, but only after the area had been made safe by conventional weapons. The only way I can see a weapon like that being useful is as a booby-trap, but even that is hard, since you need to keep the steel molten (around 2,060 deg. F) until the trap is sprung. As a side note, if the conditions are just right, you can make quite a little dustructive device with a fork, a cup of water, and a microwave. No, it does not involve leaving the fork inside the microwave while it is running... But we won't get into all that here :icon_neut

There are also other "non-conventional" weapons, some of which are being examined by the military. Among them, focused sound (non-lethal yet VERY effective at subduing someone from a relatively good distance); sonic weapons that destroy things with a shock wave, kind of like a huge concussion grenade; and even "smell" weapons that can clear an area out with a quickness!

[Schmitty27]

The most powerful explosion in the universe is known as a gamma-ray burst. What happens is a large disk of pure energy forms in front of a new born black hole. When the black hole finally forms its generates an unbelievably large amount of force that propels the disk of energy into space. This explosion could easily destroy this solar system many times over. So what do we do? Find a way to create the tiny black holes that were forming and being destroyed in the quantam foam before the Planck time and we can...well destroy a whole bunch of stuff.

[erichthewebguy]

Not so long ago (as in a few months ago), there were some guys who created a microscopic black hole in the super-collider under long island. It began consuming matter surrounding it, then died. They think that they can reproduce the feat. They also think that they can release more energy than a nuke by manipulating the black hole... But where will it stop? Would such an explosion destroy our planet? Granted, some of the scientists who created the first nuclear weapon (Einstiein himself was included in this group) thought that such an explosion would surely destroy the Earth, but with an energy release at the scale we are talking about, destruction seems more feasible.

It begs the question... Just because we CAN, does that mean that we SHOULD?

[Schmitty27]

Technology and science can be a volatile mix and I surely hope they know when to draw the line.

[Argonath]

We (hu-mons) also created anti-mater at CERN.

[Argonath]

mmmmmm. . . . carpet bombing, uuuuuuhhhhhhh. . . .

[WhiteAfricanAmerican]

MC, do you really think carpet bombing would have helped us or hurt us.

As it is this is the most surgically precise operation in the history of warfare.
Carpet bombing an entire city into oblivion is NOT the answer.

Personally, I'd have laid seige to the town. Nothing goes in, nothing goes out.

Drop flyers saying, food will come in, once the ====s come out.

Guaranteed within 2 weeks, if the ====s didn't come out voluntarily, the citizens would have made em come out.

[Oi_Ve]

Here's a more feasible question: What would you do if we were to invade Iran, North Korea, or Syria? My answer: "shock and awe" from beginning to end. Relentless 24/7/365 pounding. Never give them a chance to fire back.

Having said that, I am woefully unqualified to make any judgement about modern warfare strategy. But, I can predict that of the three countries named above, North Korea would be the bloodiest and toughest. The dictator there has the people SO far under his thumb that they have ZERO clue what the world is truly like outside of their borders. It would be akin to the invasion of Japan that thankfully never had to take place. Men, women, and children would fight us with zeal unseen in modern warfare until almost all of them were dead. The only ones who would not would be the ones imprisoned and tortured by the regime, and even in that case, I would hazard a guess that a good percentage of them would still defend their homeland.

Koreans are naturally brutal warriors. Historically during their attacks they leave nothing alive, from people to animals. Buildings are destroyed, and every living thing in the village dies.
Effective combat.
Needless to say Koreans aren't fun enemies

[erichthewebguy]

Koreans are naturally brutal warriors. Historically during their attacks they leave nothing alive, from people to animals. Buildings are destroyed, and every living thing in the village dies.
Effective combat.
Needless to say Koreans aren't fun enemies
You're absolutely right. A friend of mine fought in Korea and can attest to that fact, and has on several occassions.

[FKLBRLS]

Here's what we could do better in our next war:

First of all, we need to make it mandatory that everyone who is not handicapped is in the military for at least a few years after high school. This doesn't really hurt anything, it actually helps by giving more people discipline. Plus, it would get me off my physically lazy ass to join the military. Mentally, I could join, but physically, I really don't feel like going to boot camp and dropping and giving 20,000.
Also:
-better stealth aircraft
-widespread use of death-rays (charged particle beams)
-sonic bombs
-smell bombs
-playing Barbara Streisand and Cher really loud to make the enemy go insane

[WhiteAfricanAmerican]

Koreans are naturally brutal warriors. Historically during their attacks they leave nothing alive, from people to animals. Buildings are destroyed, and every living thing in the village dies.
Effective combat.
Needless to say Koreans aren't fun enemies

Which is why, throughout history, Korea played the ugly college girl at the drunken frat parties of China and Japan?

Korea got the living shit kicked out of them every time they engaged one of these countries.

The only thing Korea has going for it, is numbers, and anti war protesters here. That's it.

This is where carpet bombing would work wonders.

[Redneck]

why pigs?

If you must ask that your not paying attention to world religion....

[Argonath]

Which religion? There's tons of religions, I cant follow them all. I barely follow normal news as it is.