Letters to the Editor
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Oh Yeah, The U.S. Military Just SUCKS!
And I have a bridge I'd like to sell you.
Clearly ALL modern armies travel on oil, but if firepower/killing ability is measureable, I would say the U.S. military gets more bang for its oil buck than any nation since WWI.
Consider the AC-130U and the A-10 Warthog. The AC-130U is equipped with two 25mm Vulcan, 5-barrel guns and one 105mm Howitzer. That's right, a HOWITZER. The A-10 has a 30mm chain-fed auto-cannon in its nose. Deploy one of each of these planes over a large area and they have enough combined firepower to destroy entire armies. Moreover, the Warthog can take multiple direct hits from RPGs and SAMs and remain operational. They're not indestructible, but close.
And I haven't even touched on the giant bombs we can deploy, like the 25k pound "Daisy Cutter" that can be dropped onto and incinerate entire armoured columns. Talk about bang for your buck!
Anyone who takes on the U.S. military in a conventional shooting war is dust. However immoral the war in Iraq may be, it has not "proven that we can be defeated." Quite the contrary, the IEDs are useless against Strykers - proving our adaptability - and many wounded who would once have been useless are, after a few days or weeks of rehabilitation, able to return to the battlefield. The M-1 Abrams is still the best tank in the world, bar none. The Apache is disappointing to put it MILDLY, but the Black Hawk is as solid as anything available to any other army in the world. An added bonus is that JANES Infantry routinely ranks the U.S. Marines and Army Rangers at or near the top of it's annual evaluation of the best infantry in the world.
So please spare me the "paper tiger" talk. It's an insult to my intelligence.