Thursday, December 04, 2008

Arms Race Update - Be Careful What You Say in the Age of Cyberspace

Has this guy never heard of YouTube? This is the second or third part of a presentation by a US Air Force fighter combat expert to a bunch of older fighter jocks. In it, around 01:15, he begins by dissing the French, saying they only pretended to fight when they joined the alliance air campaign in Desert Storm and that they only participated in US air combat exercises so they could intercept invaluable Russian and Soviet air radar intel.

Having shoved his foot all the way up his nation's diplomatic backside, this joker goes on to depict Indian Air Force fighter pilots as jumped up, second-rate braggarts. I mean he really lowers the lumber on those Third World jackasses. Check it out for yourself. Hey Colonel - make that Corporal - Loudmouth, read the memo. India is supposed to be Washington's new BFF to thwart China. You don't make your most important allies out to be a bunch of loudmouthed pricks.

But the crowning moment comes at the very end when, while describing America's gazillion dollar F-22 Raptor he goes on to complain about an aircraft called the Mig-21 Bison. Yes, that Mig-21, the one from the air war over Hanoi 40-years ago. Only this Cold War piece of junk has been given a new coat of radar-absorbent paint and a new jamming system and it's good enough to be able to crawl right underneath the best American fighter's tail pipe before he knows it's there. Yes, let's throw another few trillion dollars into building a plane that's vulnerable to another plane you can buy on E-bay for $20,000.

Sorry Bud but you swagger about this mindlessly and you can damn well be sure you'll eat your words on YouTube.

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