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"Bomben auf England !"
Way back in the last millennium during the Battle of Britain - one of Deutschland's attack craft was the sexyful Dornier DO 17 "Flying Pencil." Long, tall, lean and mean she was originally masqueraded as a super fast mail plane to escape the Versailles Treaty which prohibited Jerry from developing combat planes.
Debuting as a superfast bomber she was envisioned as being able to swing both ways - dropping precision targeted pay loads and simply outrunning any Allied pursuit planes.
Tenacious fighter pilot skills and RAF's technological prowess soon rendered flying the Pencil in combat a dumb thing to do and the one piece all aluminum aircraft was obsolete'd by the end of 1941.
Very few survived the war so it is a historical treat of sorts that a Fliegender Bleistift that splashed down in the channel in the do or die days over the fields of Kent is still there and available for salvage and display.
"...A rare World War Two German bomber, shot down over the English Channel in 1940 and hidden for years by shifting sands at the bottom of the sea, is so well preserved a British museum wants to raise it.
"...The plane came to rest upside-down in 50 feet of water and has become partially visible from time to time as the sands retreated before being buried again.
The sonar sat pics are amazing
Fliegender Bleistift stats:
* Crew: 4 (pilot, bomb aimer/gunner, two gunners)
* Length: 53 ft 3¾ in. (16.24 m)
* Wingspan: 59 ft 0¾ in. (18 m)
* Height: 14 ft 2 in. (4.56 m)
* Wing area: 592 ft² (54.99 m²)
* Empty weight: 9,920 lb (4,499 kg)
* Loaded weight: 14,991 lb (6,799 kg)
* Max takeoff weight: 15,520 lb (7,039 kg)
* Powerplant: 2× BMW VI 7.3 litre 12-cylinder liquid cooled in-line engines, 750 hp (559 kw) each
Performance
* Maximum speed: 236 mph (379 km/h) at sea level
* Range: 990 mi (1,593 km) with 1,760 lb bomb load
* Service ceiling: 18,050 ft (5,501 m)
* Maximum diving speed: 550 km/h (342 mph)
* Landing speed: 109 km/h (68 mph)
Armament
* Guns: three 7.92 mm MG 15 machine guns (some were fitted with up to five in 1939/40)
* Bombs: 997 kg (2,200 lb) of bombs
Pic - "Hanna flies a Pencil in airframe trials. Later, she became the 1st girl to ever fly a helicopter"
As best understood,
one of the coolest scenes in all of Straw Wars fandom is the bit in SWIII Revenge of the Sith. Chancellor Palpatine channels all the resources and energies of the dark side and literally sings with the power surging through his frame and blasts the jedi guy Mace Windu into oblivion with the Machiavellian cry of:
"Un! Limited! Power!"
Ex CIA spy guy and academ au courant Dr P shares sump about autocratical power - and how to keep it
"...The popular upheaval in the Middle East, and the reactions of regimes in the region to that upheaval, constitute a laboratory for studying the effectiveness of different strategies for retaining political power. A variety of strategies have been tried. Libya's Qaddafi, for example, has followed one of the harder lines, while other regimes have emphasized carrots for the populace more than sticks. Several regimes are mixing the hard and the soft, although in varying proportions and in different sequences. The variation does not simply track the character of the regimes; it is not just a matter, say, of Qadhafi following a tough line because he is a harder edged tyrant and the previous regime in Egypt following a different course because gentler souls live there. The different strategies reflect calculations by rulers about which approach is most likely to keep them in power. The results in most countries in the region have yet to be determined. They can't all have the best strategy. Who's right?
"...There is no general answer to that question. The question involves inherent trade-offs. Toughness is best able to quell unrest directly, and it also demonstrates determination. But it antagonizes people and therefore stimulates more anger and possibly more unrest. Concessions and conciliation can defuse unrest without generating more anger, and can bolster a regime's popularity. But it also be seen as weakness and as such may make regime change appear all the more within reach. Mixed strategies have a logical appeal, sending the messages both that continued opposition involves paying a price and that supporting the regime has its rewards. But such mixtures often are interpreted as vacillation and a sign of indecision. These dilemmas are not new. They arose, for example, when the rule of the shah of Iran began to shake. Disagreement persists to this day over whether the shah's regime could have been saved and if so, what strategy was best designed to save it.
"...The results of different regime-saving strategies are indeterminate partly because whether a regime stays or goes depends also on other variables besides the regime's selection of a strategy. They depend on the specific characteristics of the country in question and on the issues that have arisen there. They sometimes depend on the postures of outside powers (as is the case with Libya today). They depend on the location of the tipping point, which again varies by country, between popular anger and popular fear. And they depend on the same sort of unpredictable catalysts that gave rise to the unrest in the first place.
"...One implication of the indeterminacy is that we should retain a large dollop of agnosticism in trying to anticipate where this story in the Middle East is going. Another is that if are thinking about giving advice to regimes we want to stay in power (such as the one in Bahrain), we probably should think again. We ought to have little confidence that whatever advice we give is the right advice. Yet another implication is that many people—ourselves, Middle Eastern rulers, and future analysts and historians—are likely to draw incorrect lessons from however events in the region play out. We are apt to hear generalizations such as that toughness pays, or toughness does not pay, and most such generalizations will be wrong. They will be invalid extrapolations from outcomes the basis of which is far more complicated than that.
Pic - "Why don't they say what mean - mean what they say?"
Vilayat-e Faqih!
The battle over the Persian Version of the ancient Deutsch "Führerprinzip" - the autocratical concept of one cat calling all the shots for an entire nation state and all the attendant peoples - is going on bay bee!
Ebberdobby knows Iran doesn't call the highest levels of Preacher Command the Supreme Leader for nothing - the trick is - Persia's illegit regime hotly desires their Supreme Leader sweetly xforms into the entire ME's Supreme Leader.
"... Shia-Sunni antagonism is far more serious and determinant of conflict than Americans yet comprehend, even after the strife in Iraq. Thus the natural rival - even enemy - of Iran is not Little Satan but rather Saudi Arabia
Aside from successful adventures in Lebanon with Hiz'B'Allah and lesser successors in The Strip, Iran and Wahabi Arabia are waging a proxy war in their near abroad - like Yemen and Bahrain. Securing Persia's flanking flanks before making the case for corrupt royalty in Ray Bans to unass the Custodialship of the Mecca/Medina Matrix and give it up to Iran.
It's the famous Shia Sunni schisimus maximus sorteed as Sectarian Wars
As in Bahrain:
"...In the view of many Shia, the arrival of Saudi troops weeks ago is merely a ploy by Bahrain's rulers to quell calls by the opposition for a Western-style democracy in favour of the status quo. For the Saudis, a crackdown on the Shia protesters in Bahrain sends a message to their own restive Shia citizens in the eastern part of the country who also demand democratic rule.
"...The Saudi military presence has produced two negative results: First, Saudi Arabia is pressing Bahrain's rulers to use violence against its own people in order for the Saudis to minimise any potential Iranian intervention and to intimidate its own Shia citizens. Second, Iran is now using the Saudi invasion to threaten Bahrain's government and pretend to be protecting its Shia brethren next door in a neighbouring state.
"...The sad truth is that there is now a significant escalation of tension in the Gulf which has not been seen in years. The stakes are high for Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, but certainly not for Iran at present.
"...Consequently, expect Iran to exploit the situation in the days and weeks ahead, attempting to exert the maximum pressure on Bahrain's government while stopping just short of provoking an armed confrontation with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states.
Ottoman Empire's Ömer Taspinar points out it's proxilicious!
"...It is no secret that since the emergence of Iraq as a Shiite state after the invasion of the United States, there has been a major battle between Iran and Saudi Arabia for a new balance of power in the Middle East.
"...In its simplest form this is a battle between Sunni and Shiite forces in Iraq. The more complicated version is a proxy war in Lebanon, where Saudi Arabia supports Sunni groups loyal to the Hariri family and Tehran sides with Hezbollah. Since the Arab Spring began with the toppling of authoritarian governments in Tunisia and Egypt, a third front has emerged, where the battle between Iran and Saudi Arabia is gaining the complex dimension of a “proxy” struggle: Bahrain.
"...The battle between Iran and Saudi Arabia explains why the West has turned a blind eye to the brutal crackdown on the Shiite opposition in Bahrain. Although the ruling dynasty is Sunni and close to Saudi Arabia, a majority of Bahrain is Shiite. Adding to the strategic importance of this island in the Persian Gulf is the fact that it houses the 5th Fleet of the US Navy.
"...For international relations scholars, what is unfolding in Bahrain is a textbook example of realpolitik, according to which there is nothing surprising about the lack of consistency in US’s support for democracy.
"...Now, with recent signs of serious unrest in Syria, all eyes are once again on the proxy war. How will the struggle in this critical country unfold?
"...Hawkish idealists, usually neoconservatives happy to merge their pro-democracy views with American military power, will probably favor regime change in Syria. In their eyes, the destabilization of Syria will be a good thing, mainly because Iran will be the main loser.
"...According to their democratic contagion theory, if protesters in Syria succeed, Iran could be next. Needless to say, the end of the Shiite theocracy in Iran will be the ultimate price in the Middle Eastern proxy war.
Pic - "The demographic boom in the Middle East has brought a wave of young Arabs and Iranians who associate subjugation and injustice not with colonial or imperial powers, but with their own governments"
Joyeuex Anniversaire!
It's been an amazing 5 years since Academia's Pax Professorcana's underwhelming loser lobby team up betwixt Professors Mearsheimer und Walt (of the infamous "Weenie Hut Juniors") double teamed those wascally Little Satan fans with the unleash of the infamous naughty Nakbahteer Necronomicom.
"The Little Satan Posse"
1st appearing in the prestigious London Review of Hard Back Thingys with Paper Between Them -
The Little Satan Posse had cats tore up from the floor up with the openly insinuated meme that wicked Palestine land stealing Little Satan had Great Satan by the nose - leading both to disastrous policies that not only hurt both Satan's legit interests - but was totally queering the mix beyond repair on the entire world.
"A loose coalition of individuals and organizations who actively work to steer American foreign policy in a pro-Little Satan direction. It focuses primarily on the lobby's influence on Great Satan's foreign policy and its negative effect on American interests, the lobby's impact has been unintentionally harmful to Little Satan as well."
Oh Snap! First off, a lobby is NOT a conspiracy. Indeed, whenever a machination is suspected to be true - it never is - when it's not suspect - it is totally successful.
And just how sexyfull is the Lobby? Not very! For starters - if it were true wicked dual loyalists and warmongering foreigners were yanking all the strings - uh, wouldn't Little Satan would be way more bigger turf wise than she is, like, from the Nile to the Eupharates?
Tiny tiny Little Satan 'occupies' less than 1% of the Arab world and less than a /10th of 1% of turf sweetly captured in desperate counterattacks.
West Bank would be all hers - Palestinians sweetly Right of Relocation'd to their choice of any of Arab League's 22 despotdoms (all with kindred dialect and customs) - strategic realignment of immense proportions, parceling out the most literate Arabs ever on the face of the earth with a penchant for voting in real, transparent elections. Generously repatriated and reparationed with Arab League cash as a diplopolitical apology about the totally tarded "3 No's of Khartoum" along with full ambassadorial status and Official Recog from every Arab Nation state on earth.
Golan would have been ceded long ago via Syria, the heavily Little Satan settled Blue Line would stretch from Little Satan's North 40 all the way to Litani River (with Sheebah Farms as a tasty treat) and Pyramidlanders would be administering the Strip instead of it's current (and risible) stats as one of Little Satan's client states.
Praised by super villain OBL as required reading, "The Little Satan Posse" caught more flak than Great Satan's oiled up pantie raid over Ploesti and was literally rewritten several times before appearing as we know it today.
The ungodly - yet avuncular Christopher Hitchens scored perhaps the 2nd best hit on the piece "AIPAC and other J'ish orgs exert a vast influence over Middle East policy", and stated that the paper "contains much that is true and a little that is original" and that he "would have gone further than Mearsheimer and Walt".
Hitch also does his Best Defense and Samuel Johnson impersonation, that "what is original is not true and what is true is not original", and that the notion that the "J'ish tail wags the American dog... the United States has gone to war in Iraq to gratify Ariel Sharon, and... the alliance between the two countries has brought down on us the wrath of Osama Bin Laden" is "partly misleading and partly creepy".
Hitch beasts that M und W's Little Satan Posse hypothesis is totally jank and be totally stank, yo "They seriously mischaracterize the origins of the problem" and have produced "an article that is redeemed from complete dullness and mediocrity only by being slightly but unmistakably smelly."
Such "piss poor" Professorism plagued the "Little Satan Posse" in the early days - Atlantic Monthly (who originally promised to fund it, backed off and rejected it - leading to cries the Little Satan was flexing her claws) and ex CIA spy guy James Woolsey (who is also whispered to be a wonderful dancer) said it was fake believe like Hobbits and Hobos
"... Reading these version of events is like entering a completely different world." M und W "are stunningly deceptive", and are hot for a sex'd up "commitment to distorting the historical record is the one consistent feature of this book"
Despite all the 'splainer man memes - blah blah blah - both the Little Satan Posse fanboys totally fail in their dot connecting sexercises to maintain a debate they are consistently NOT winning.
Loving Little Satan may actually have little to do with the PBUH guy, lame stream media, Hillbilly Xians or some magical posse pulling all the strings.
Consider - the Alamo meme. Surrounded by hostile creepy terrorist rocket rich rejects, wicked LOTR like forces - that for whatever reasons - appear intolerant and somewhat unhinged.
Exceptional Lite - nicht wahr?
The 'Satanic Reality' is gothicly gamed by the fact that Little Satan is right smack dab in the middle of the Arab world - and by any measure of measurement - economic, political, social, or cultural - she is success thriving amid misery. Without oil, without a large pop, without friendly homies on her borders, without vast real estate, and without Suez Canal, she magically provides her citizens with a way of life far more better than what is found in Palestine, Syria, Iran, Lebanon, Jordan, or Egypt.
Loving Little Satan is an abiding feature of American public opinion. Because the American people are YaY!-Little Satan, the American government is YaY! Little Satan. And because Americans so hotly dig Little Satan's action in her forever quest Peace Battles with Araby, Great Satan's Policy is committed to defending Little Satan's democracy - nothing magic really - just like Philippines, SoKo or Taiwan.
Great Satan's birthright as a nation of immigrants that magically created the first modern 'democrazy' are sweetly mirrored imaged in Little Satan (Canada and Australia could say this too).
Result?
A tolerant, egalitarian society with a penchant for periodic, transparent elections, a free uncensored press, a nat'l treasury under public scrutiny, a military under civie control, an independent judiciary under elected gov oversight and the ability to enforce Writ of State.
Just like Great Satan!
"This is why they call Israel the Little Satan, to distinguish it clearly from the country that has always been and will always be the Great Satan - the United States of America."
Pic - "The Posse" has not had any great impact on the general public. The American public continues to support the relationship and resistance to any threat to the survival of Little Satan."
Gesundheit!
While 44 seems to have made an anciently hot warcraft phantasy come true in Libya - "Oh snap! If only both sides could lose!" - several indicators are indicating 44's posse of fully crunk academs (with all the attendant lack of real world expertise) are getting carjack'd by reality.
As kindred spirit and Ambassador K sagely saged - "It's regional, stupid!"
Retroactively reaction to every development, crisis and opportunity shows an underwhelming lack of strategic vision:
"...It's inherently reactive. It allows us to manage breaking developments but undermines our ability to shape events proactively even as regimes and reformers are watching our actions and drawing lessons. If we are to avoid instability while putting hostile regimes on the defensive, we need a strategy that allows us to take the initiative..."
Talk talk talking 'bout sweet strategery.
All the press Girl Power got - true tall tail tales of Ambasador Rice, Madame Sec HRC and R2P genocide hater Sam Pow flexing the muscle and pressing Great Satan back into interventionus maximus modus may in fact be a side show of sorts.
44 and his super powered team of rivals are hopefully absorbing that lesson faster than rowdy assetted little nephews and happy meals - with the toy helplessly held hostage til every bite is consumed.
The realization that Little Satan's apartments of war, occupied turf (won fair and square - nicht wahr?) or Great Britain's past collective of colonies or even Arab Streets pitiful alleged wrath at Great Satan's penchant for taking modern warmaking within arms reach of every Mid East nation state capitol have little game in the new millennium.
It's all about gay free Persia's Preacher command - and by extension - Syria and the rocket rich rejectionist minions in Hiz'B'Allah:
As 44 heard the arguments of security cats about the yays and OMG's of doing Libya, the conversation soon veered into the impact in a far more strategically vital place: Iran.
"...The mullahs in Tehran, noted Thomas E. Donilon, the national security adviser, were watching Mr. Obama’s every move in the Arab world. They would interpret a failure to back up his declaration that Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi had “lost the legitimacy to lead” as a sign of weakness — and perhaps as a signal that Mr. Obama was equally unwilling to back up his vow never to allow Iran to gain the ability to build a nuclear weapon.
“...It shouldn’t be overstated that this was the deciding factor, or even a principal factor” in the decision to intervene in Libya, Benjamin J. Rhodes, a senior aide who joined in the meeting, said last week. But, he added, the effect on Iran was always included in the discussion. In this case, he said, “the ability to apply this kind of force in the region this quickly — even as we deal with other military deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan — combined with the nature of this broad coalition sends a very strong message to Iran about our capabilities, militarily and diplomatically.”
So when Great Satan scopes out the region through Persian binocs, what does it look like?
THE ARAB ALLY CARD
The problem gets more complex when dealing with Arab allies who have little compunction about shooting protesters in the streets, even as they seek to undermine Iran. Saudi Arabia and Bahrain are the prime examples. The Saudis see Iran as the biggest threat to their own regional ambitions, and have cooperated in many American-led efforts to hem in Tehran. Yet relations between Washington and Riyadh have rarely been as strained: To King Abdullah, President Obama’s decision to abandon President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt was a sign of weakness, and a warning that he might throw the Saudi leadership under the bus if democracy demonstrations took root there.
Perhaps that explains why there was barely a peep from the White House when the Saudis rolled troops into neighboring Bahrain to help put down the Shiite-majority protests there. Much as Mr. Obama wants to see the aspirations of democracy protesters fulfilled, and urged steps toward reform in Bahrain, he has no desire to see the toppling of the government that hosts the Fifth Fleet, right across the Persian Gulf from Iran.
THE SYRIAN PUZZLE
For years the United States has tried in vain to peel Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, away from Iran and to reconcile with Israel. It fears that if his government collapses, chaos will reign, making Syria unpredictable as well as dangerous. It’s a reasonable fear. But in recent weeks the White House has concluded that it has much less to lose than the Iranians do if Mr. Assad is swept away. And, as some in Mr. Obama’s war council have noted, if protesters succeed in Syria, Iran could be next.
LITTLE SATAN’S OPTIONS
All the Arab turmoil has left Little Satan convinced that America and its Arab allies are too distracted to credibly threaten that they will stop the Iranian nuclear ambitions at all costs, even though Mr. Donilon has pledged that “we will not take our eye off the ball.” Inside Little Satan, a debate has resumed about how long Little Satan can afford to put off dealing with the problem themselves, fed by fears that Iran’s reaction to the region’s turmoil might be a race for the bomb. That could lead to the worst outcome for 44 — a war between Persia and Little Satan — and that consideration alone makes the case for the administration to see little room for error in handling the main act.
Pic - "The Devil We Know"
