olaleier

I am going to write a rather long post. I hope you read it. If it looks boring, please take your time. I know long forum posts can be boring, but please bear with me on this, go back and read the rest later if it's too much, I know I would scroll past if someone didn't tell me not to. Noone can disagree with the skill of the US military. Unless you go back to bow-and-arrow days (not including mideval rape and pillage), ODS/OIF is about as clean as you can get a war. It's ugly to begin with. The US military is an amazing machine, certainly for flight-sim nerds like me. For some others it's a mean of killing and conquering, don't be surprised if other people in this world won't share your appreciation of the service. (I am not one of those, but I am not a person that watches CNN with popcorn and "Go Paveway" flags either) As for the politics, here is the problem many of us Europeans face today (us small ones, not the pro/con-find-out-what-fits-your-agenda politicians): Nothing will change the war, no problem there, but properly telling the US goverment what is right and what is not will prevent future incidents that is less fortunate. Such is not strange to history. To excuse some Europeans, most of the voices against the US effort seek to find the strongest voice with regards to their agenda. It is easier to reach to the most obvious arguments, or the arguments that brings the most rhetoric power. This is true both for presidents and for left-wing activists. The arguments can be such as "Oil = Blood", augmented by the business-connections in the Bush government, or the good old "Imperialism" which still strikes a sore chord (i.e. harmful to others) among many European citizens. We have done much harm to Africa, Asia and America. (This is true for all Westerners btw, always remember that) Now think. (Bear with me) If you've once punched someone in the face to satisfy your view of justice (he did something wrong etc), got arrested since it was illegal , got punished and learned your lesson through the punishment (or "Utopia" as it is referred to) you would probably give much effort in to tellling other potential violators what wrong they were about to commit. This is the core. The outside is not as simple. I won't bother dipping in to it. You all know that each country has it's own agenda. What I want to say is that we aren't all bad here in Euro-land. And we don't think you are all bad over there either. But we are afraid that you will continue this logic and commit other, worse acts. I know I felt bad when I saw posters that said "France is next", even though I knew it really meant nothing. I know many, with more power and influence than that particular redneck, think "Syria and North Korea are next". I am a young fool. People older than me and my drunken escapades tell me that again and again. But I will challenge both and repeat the old line: History repeats itself. No matter how much technology we may develop and how much ethics our academics may study, we will always kill eachother, always. Sometimes without guilt, sometimes with. I am sure the Romans said the same. "Now we are a righteous society". Never.. I am not saying that the American government is evil, but you have taken a step in that direction, regardless of that step having positive effects. This has happened before and it will happen again and again, hundrdes of years and thousand of years after your death. Now, I am very happy for Iraq's freedom. But you cannot expect a clean military operation to reap clean results. And you cannot expect further future operations to rid yourselves of the 9/11-scar, out of which the whole world bled, I won't say that such (or at best, lesser) operations will prevent you from it. I know some will do. Yes, we have enemies. I declare I am on one side. And that is the side of peace, whether it is obtained by military force or abstaining from it, finding other means to calm the tension between the western civilization and the muslim powers that may oppose it. Peace is the ultimate goal. Perhaps a step towards it was achieved with Operation Iraqi Freedom, or perhaps we took a step back. We will know in due time. I hope the coalition troops did not give their life in vain, and I hope the American government will adopt a line that does not dictate US supremacy, but world peace. We are your friends and you have saved us before, we owe you so much. Please help us stay friends. If you have read this entire post, please give yourself a pat on the back. I apologize for it's length but it felt very good writing it. Thanks to dictionary.com for making it possible :)

:D :D :D As it his hard to measure an amount of beer once it is spread all over your monitor and desk, I'll have to blindly select this as The Best Quote: I wonder, doesn't the fellas have to do number two now and then? The surely don't go in the urinal, that would be very inefficient and not very Navy-like. They surely have adequate means for the disposal of ADF (Already digested food). Couldn't the women go there?

I don't mind a "political" debate, and I sure hope the enviroment on BioHaz is better than other places for such...it's ok to disagree! Being a leftie European ("left" isn't a very clear direction in the Norwegian political enviroment btw, thank God) I will just mention that the time from the war begun until mr Bush declared "mission accomplished" aboard the carrier is NOT the problem. I don't follow US debates, but I'm sure the number of US personnel paying the ultimate price is milked for what it's worth by the democrats. I don't appreciate the exploitive nature of such campaigning, it must be a hard time for all Americans. Janet Reno, Hillary Clinton or Teddy Kennedy may have spent much time, but they didn't have to fire so many 21 shot salutes. It's hard to say "It was wrong to start the war" nowadays. Those pictures of Saddam The Amazing Tunnel Rat were very satisfying, but I still stand by my pre-war opinion, there should not be an opportunity for a civillized country to go to war on guesswork and hunches. (Again I hope BioHaz is small enough to sustain such statements, I like discussing this, but in a proper manner, I'm not a Bush-hater) If the ends justify the means, this will set VERY ill precedence. I hope this post is taken the right way.

:D Not only birds can be dangerous, deer, salmon and turtles are hazardous too! http://www.safetycenter.navy.mil/media/app...ticles/0066.htm

Just a little note... Two years ago, a 21-year old RNoAF sergeant Marthe Gaugstad got a ride in an F-16, which she had waited a long time for. Little did she know that she would experience more of fighter jock life than she bargained for! :D The Viper ate a bird. The 1000+ hr pilot Vegard Bøthun got a firelight and his wingman reported smoke. They had to punch out above water. The young sergeant got nothing but the highest credit for her calm and collected actions, and they got picked up by a Sea King, no injuries, text-book stuff. Regardless of pre-flight training, one wonders if a yellow-belly news-jock would have kept his cool the same way. :D I saw a piece of the fowl-ed F-16 in the Norwegian Air Transport Museum. A chunk of the leading edge flaps (or slats or whatever) with some wiring sticking out had floated around a peninsula (don't remember the exact distance, but 30 or 40+ miles) where some puzzled fisherman picked it up.

I've been spamming the Ubi-forums since Aug last year, waiting for Lomac. And I honestly have to say, it's not sweeping me off my feet. After I got TrackIR, FB is a totally different game, I'm loving every second of it. Atmosphere is so hard to put your finger at, FB gets a free ride from history which is hard to compete with. Lomac is a brilliant game, perhaps it just needs a little time to grow on me.

Over at the official site, the excited simmers have been treated with one heck of a dev. update. A whole screenshot!

I wasn't that serious about beta-testing. Not that I would mind, but it's better left to people experienced with development rather than gamers/simmers like me. I'm good at finding weird bugs though. ;) Just hope MrMudd will get a good team to work with, a clear vision etc, and that the venture is successful. Risky business, but respect to those that dare.

Wow, great news MrMudd. Good luck! Can't wait for the info on that title! :D So...before anyone else ask...Can I be a beta tester?!

You need to lighten up abit Jinks. Someone had some fun landing on the carrier with a plane that doesn't operate from one, big deal. It's just fun! And as for the "million pieces" bit...as stated above, an F-15 could've been landed on a carrier, the tougher gear in Navy planes are built to sustain no-flare landings through years of operation, not just to survive one landing. edit: Btw, the F-15s arrestor hook would probably break though...when I say "landing" I mean the touching down part, not the stopping. :) The arrestor cables used on military airbases for emergencies stop the plane in much greater distance than aboard a carrier.

I've made a MiG-29 template for Photoshop which you can download from http://www.checksix-fr.com On the right hand menu, click "Lock On" and then "@Téléchargement". It's not empty, but it's layered and indexed so it's very easy to change stuff. Read the readme, all of it. ;) (First post here btw, hi guys! Couldn't start New Thread in this forum though...)