The War Nerd Returns With A Special Survey Of Obama’s Wars: “Good Fighter, Can’t Cheerlead Worth A Damn”

The War Nerd / September 11, 2012

By Gary Brecher

From today’s edition of NSFW Corp

FRESNO—Today’s the Big Anniversary, so what better day to size up Obama’s war record than the day that also launched my career as a professional War Nerd.

When you look back at Obama’s wars, you get a pretty clear idea what went wrong over the last four years. It wasn’t the way Obama’s team handled the wars. Truth is, they did damn well at that, better than I ever thought they would.

The real problem is that they don’t know what world they’re living in. These are people who’ve spent their lives getting straight A’s, collecting gold stars, avoiding mistakes. And they think war is just like all those other little hurdles you face in life.

That’s why they’ll never get credit for any of it. They have this delusion that sanity matters, and they’ve run their wars as sanely and boringly as an exterminator going after termites.
It’s sensible, it’s semi-effective, and it irritates the life out of the 99%. I don’t mean the Occupy 99%, all those “goodhearted ordinary Americans”; that’s a totally made-up imaginary species invented by people just as naive as Obama’s crew. I mean the real 99% of us living our rotten lives out there, mean and dumb and miserable, just waiting for some gore we can really get behind.

Obama just doesn’t understand his job as war chief of this big crazy tribe…(Continued)

To read the rest of this War Nerd article surveying the Obama wars, click here.

This article was published at Not Safe For Work Corp, where Gary Brecher has just signed on as a new regular columnist. To read The War Nerd columns and more NSFWCORP wretched wisdom (with jokes), subscribe for the monthly price of a bottle of Diet Coke: http://www.nsfwcorp.com/subscribe

Would you like to know more? Gary Brecher is the author of the War Nerd. Send your comments to gary dot brecher at gmail dot com. Read Gary Brecher’s first ever War Nerd column by clicking here.

Click the cover, buy the book!

81 Comments

Add your own

1. Cum | September 11th, 2012 at 9:32 pm
A few weeks ago I lamented the disappearance of the War Nerd and then a week ago I gave my three dollars to NSFW. I feel like a Mormon who has died and floated off to outer space to rule their own planet.
2. COCKSON | September 11th, 2012 at 9:35 pm
aw hell yea
3. helplesscase | September 11th, 2012 at 9:42 pm
halle-FUCKING-lejuah. I read the WN from last year on the way to school, thinking it was the only consolation I’d get all day.
4. helplesscase | September 11th, 2012 at 9:45 pm
…also, definitely makes me feel like I’m getting my money’s worth as a new NSFWCorp subscriber. Hopefully Gary will stick around for a while.
5. John | September 11th, 2012 at 9:54 pm
Praise the Lord and Pass the ammunition!
We’ve waited so long!!!
6. Zhu Bajie | September 11th, 2012 at 10:50 pm
Out of jail, I see! Next time, remember, there’s no extradition from Brazil or China!
7. Heywood Jablowme | September 12th, 2012 at 12:34 am
The myth about Vietnam is that “we never lost a battle” and that guerrilla war is tough on conventional armies. But the Viet Cong were a wreck by the end of Tet. It was the NVA that won the war – a conventional army. Americans just can’t stomach that the celebrated G.I. got his ass handed to him in a stand up fight.
8. Abdullah Finkelshtayn | September 12th, 2012 at 1:10 am
The Messiah/Mahdi [please cross out as appropriate] hath returned!
Or, perhaps, he is no Messiah but just a very very naughty boy.
9. Jie Ke | September 12th, 2012 at 3:26 am
moar
10. ajax151 | September 12th, 2012 at 4:35 am
Wow I can’t believe after all that waiting and all those donations, this article singing Obama’s praises is what I get from WN.
11. ivan | September 12th, 2012 at 5:50 am
Not a bad article, I would definitely pay 3 bucks a month for this kind of content, while the 20 bucks a month I spend on the NYT to read David Brooks and Tom Friedman even though Carlos Slim already funds them makes me a sucker.
12. Trevor | September 12th, 2012 at 6:26 am
It’s good to see this. Obama still sucks on economics but that’s to be expected in any American politician these days. He at least does war right, something the GOP never will and the losers will never forgive him for.
13. Zoner | September 12th, 2012 at 6:31 am
Hooray, glad I paid that three bucks! I was starting to get buyer’s remorse (what can I say, I’m cheap) but then the War Nerd comes out of the woodwork. Three dollars a month is worth it for more War Nerd columns.
14. Margo Adler | September 12th, 2012 at 7:10 am
Welcome back, WN. Glad to see you and I hope that you are well. Enjoy your essays and I will read this one on my morning commute. Thank you.
15. Dominic | September 12th, 2012 at 7:56 am
Wow gave up on Gary a long time ago. Never stopped missing him though. somehow I fear this article may be an anomaly, a little drop in on his favorite holiday.
16. Darth Imperius | September 12th, 2012 at 8:06 am
This is a genius piece. War Nerd is now officially bigger than Jesus and Mohammad. Will someone please send this article to every so-called “leader” in Washington D.C. and the entire Western world?
The real 99% of Western people are tired of being the laughing-stock peacemakers and liberals of the world; tired of retreating and turning the other cheek; tired of the Christianity and Marxism which has so emasculated them; tired of a sterilized culture which offers them no blood and conquest; tired of being ashamed of their power; tired of the epidemic of tolerance and total fucking WEAKNESS which has infected their societies. Because no matter how much you may try to condition them, humans will always crave one thing above all: POWER! This is where Mohammed, Genghis Khan, Hitler and Stalin win, and Obama, leftists, liberals and Christians fail. A sane person always wants more power for their nation, their culture and their people, and they aren’t overly concerned with how many people have to die to get it. This is an obvious, yet revolutionary, revelation in our insane culture, and the reason War Nerd is like a prophet.
An age of war is coming, and for my kind, this is when the masks come off and we see humanity for what it is. And it will be beautiful…
17. Dimitri Ratz | September 12th, 2012 at 8:17 am
I don’t know if Christopher Steven’s would agree on smart logical Obama approach . On anniversary of 9/11 being wasted like that by Syrian Freedom Fighter wing in Libya. Funding terrorists to overthrow the secular Russian friendly administration in Syria. Given the choice the Allah Abkar (God is Great) crowed when given a choice between being put down by Syrians or gunning down two security guys and having a Rambo Free For All at American Embassy without themselves turning into cheese. It doesn’t take analytical reasoning to see funding religious hatred groups is not in our interests, because you can’t control them, their objectives are a bit different. Obama’s short sighted policy is bad at worse to tragic when he splintered international support by misusing Libya initiative given to him by everyone including the Russians. Instead of using as a moment to carry the momentum as great Greek alliance he destroyed, and betrayed the alliance for one city state. Now he can’t even get anyone to move on the Persian going nuclear, the Senate on his ass, the 16.5 trillion debt limit is less than 500 bill away and likely to be reached around November resulting in his enemies at home exploiting it as he will have to gravel like a dog to avoid American default, but even if his enemies extend Standards and Poor would still have to cut the rating, because of political infighting. All these problems, because he is short sighted, opportunitistic without ethics doesn’t lead to long term benefits, because ethics are the building blocks of life and without them there is no stable future, at least not a happy one.
18. Dimitri Ratz | September 12th, 2012 at 8:49 am
In Obama’s defense they were all on board to “liberate” Syria, but a film depicting sacred image of Mohammed came out 3 days ago that was a game changer.
19. vortexgods | September 12th, 2012 at 9:29 am
I don’t think this is even about political parties. Brecher always praised George H. W. Bush for his handling of the first Iraq War, and lamented that he lost the election anyway. And what was George H. W. Bush?
Another wonky, self-controlled type, who couldn’t sound like a bloodthirsty savage to save his life.
That’s why reducing Iraq to abject defeat and breaking their military to the point that it ended Hussein’s dreams of power projection forever had no impact on his loss to Bill Clinton. (Frankly, having to explain it like that to people was part of the problem. “Iraq can no longer project power in the Persian Gulf, it is neutered as a military threat.” “But Hussein’s still alive?” “Well, yes, but…” “Arrp!… you lose!”)
20. jyp | September 12th, 2012 at 9:33 am
No reason for Iraq? Ha ha ha! Watch me being a goof: “The reason is the stupid pricks fired SCUDs into Tel Aviv. They won’t do that again. Ever.” Nosiree, tough man, not now that Iraq is essentially under Iran’s control, nothing to worry about at all! What a bangup job!
And now for that bunch of pricks up there in Syria… Yep, if we do to Syria what we did to Iraq, we can look forward to spending another $3 trillion to place Syria under Iran’s even more direct control. Genius!
21. Dimitri Ratz | September 12th, 2012 at 9:47 am
Anyone who calls Berkeley, California home shouldn’t die like that.
22. Brazilian Rascal | September 12th, 2012 at 10:04 am
Yeesss!! New War Nerd! O day of days!
23. Resemblance | September 12th, 2012 at 10:24 am
Gary looks a lot like Dolan in that NSFW drawing.
24. Doug | September 12th, 2012 at 10:28 am
Seen the news today?
I don’t know if you should be calling Libya a victory for America quite yet…
25. Epsilon | September 12th, 2012 at 12:03 pm
There’s a detail on the War Nerd’s analysis:
People want the wars that their country wages to benefit them, even if it is just “we are making those bastards suffer”.
Who won on Irak? Iran. Who won on Lybia? The Muslim Brotherhood. Why should the average citizen be up for wars that don’t benefit them? The best deal so far has been killing Osama…and the Pakistanies were hiding him to scam the US like a bunch of suckers.
As weird, miserable and plain sickening sounds, for a large group of people, even the revenge/torture porn of the Bush years sounds better than the net zero from now.
Not that there’s any net benefit for anybody except defense contractors, fuck, they can’t set up even a damn mining operation, much less an oil pipeline.
26. DtD | September 12th, 2012 at 12:07 pm
I honestly think the mission in Iraq was accomplished seeing as this is now ours:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/03/world/middleeast/crude-oil-output-is-soaring-in-iraq-easing-markets.html
I don’t mean to be too reductive but perhaps the hippies were right on this one for once?
27. DtD | September 12th, 2012 at 12:10 pm
Oh and welcome back Gary! Do you know if your pal Dolan will be around at all either?
28. Pat Kittle | September 12th, 2012 at 12:21 pm
Nice to have you back, WN.
Just don’t start getting cynical, OK?
Or rude.
29. Dimitri Ratz | September 12th, 2012 at 12:37 pm
@25/Epsilon, bullshit. Lukoil, stock symbol Lukoy, traded in United States, I think something like 60% owned by Americans (despite being a registered Russian company) is paying Iraqis 1 dollar and 25 cents a barrel and 25% of profit in taxes so that’s a pretty sweet deal considering the light crude, also known as Brent crude is selling 115 bucks right now and at Basra, where the contract is for decades is profitable even if the terrorists hit the pipe successfully a few times. You can buy a share for about 60 bucks right now, dividend is not bad, and expansion is huge. Also after 160,000 innocent civilian casualties, surprisingly Iraqis have democracy, if you can count it that with 100 politically linked murders a day, but most of the murders are religious nuts attacking the secular government so as their civil institutions build up, and Iraq surpasses Saudi Arabia in wealth the collapse of the Saudi House is immanent, and despite all the blood and lies both sides (the Iraqis that survived and didn’t get too deformed) will benefit.
30. Dimitri Ratz | September 12th, 2012 at 12:55 pm
Suddam was asking 40 billion US dollars for Basra fields and oil was only around 20 a barrel than. Makes me teared eyed with 115 dollars a barrel now and Lukoil securing the whole huge field for 1 billion US dollars. I’d like to thank every soldier that served in Iraq for making this possible, and it really means a lot to me. Also the reason for the war was false, but our soldiers freed the masses there and Iraqis on purpose or not are a democracy now.
31. The Dude | September 12th, 2012 at 2:16 pm
The Gods of War have surely smiled down upon us.
Methinks there shall be a great big bloodbath in the coming months.
32. Cum | September 12th, 2012 at 5:10 pm
@10: Yeah that was a bit surprising, I thought WN didn’t like drones and thought they were ineffective. Also you don’t have to have read much WN to figure out that all those weapons that the US gave to Libyan militias during the civil war would end up in in the hands of jihadi groups. Those weapons are going to be turned against Americans.
33. whatever | September 12th, 2012 at 6:50 pm
It’s strange but I think the people who are overweight in America are overweight BECAUSE they are in America.
I spent three months in a Latin American country and lost ALL my extra weight, like 30 pounds. All came back when I cam back here.
One of the reasons I’m planning to move to a place with less crazy people.
34. whatever | September 12th, 2012 at 6:51 pm
Crazy and MEAN people. Must not forget that most Americans are crazy and MEAN.
35. rick | September 12th, 2012 at 8:05 pm
I hope Gary keeps writing. All his “daily blog” stuff was good. His silence felt as bad as Kafka getting cut down in the prime of life. “Kafka” was good, but “War Nerd” is WAY more like “Family Guy” and “The Simpsons,” which are WAY more popular than Kafka or Camus.
36. Zhu Bajie | September 12th, 2012 at 10:06 pm
War Nerd, there is no mystery about why Bush the Younger invaded Iraq. He wanted to speed up the Rapture and the Second Coming of Jesus! If you are truly familiar with us in the fly-over states, you’d know that Dispensationalism is 10 times as influential as Marxism ever was!
37. TrangleC | September 13th, 2012 at 12:25 am
Excellent article. Glad to see the War Nerd back.
38. Lev | September 13th, 2012 at 5:29 am
The Nerd is living proof of the fact that the more ‘objective’ one claims or even aspires to be, the more blurred his or her vision. That’s why the super subjective Nerd more often than not nails it, while say some other ‘alternative’ source like Democracy Now will merely replace the Fox News or CNN or Reuters ‘evil’ with ‘good’ and vice verse.
That being said, and even at the risk of sounding like an Alex Jones-type of loony, I really don’t think that the drone strikes in Pakistan are about terror eradication.
On the contrary, I think it’s a carefully managed terror cultivation project, with Master Obama as the Overseer. A super cost-efficient (both finacially and politically) way of making an excuse for the bloated Pentagon budjet. What would they do in lieu of this organic farming? They would have to turn some nation state into a bogie man, and Obama knows that that can be risky business. But he does want to keep the military industrial complex happy and the revolving doors revolving.
For every young jihadist killed in Pak there will be ten pissed-off cousins with nothing to lose joining the ranks. That’s one natural resource Pak is brimming with: angry young men with pretty much nothing to lose.
39. TG | September 13th, 2012 at 5:50 am
War Nerd! I missed you so much. Glad to see you’ve lost some weight, too (or is that just the NSFWcorp cartoonist kissing up to the site’s rain-maker?).
You’ve got my 3 bucks a month (I’ll kick in to SHAME, too).
It’s funny, the other night I was consoling a friend with a family issue who was annoyed and exhausted because other family members were butting in with “it’s an emergency, act now-now-now” panic. I told him that most people in the world will take that course rather than, y’know, thinking for a bit before solving the bloody problem, and that unfortunately you have to throw ’em a little red meat to get them off your back.
40. Vendetta | September 13th, 2012 at 6:04 am
I’d be nervous if I was a Saudi prince right now; they’re the favored stooges at the moment, but who’s next on the hit list after Iran?
Also, this article’s making me wonder about politicians who managed to be good at both strategy and cheerleading. Not generals, there’s a lot of good ones who were pretty damn charismatic. Heads of state, any that achieved in both?
41. fitness water | September 13th, 2012 at 6:31 am
It’s worth noting that Mitt Romney led the cheering section for his cranbook highschool football team. We could get a new head cheerleader! fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight!
42. Tyler Bass | September 13th, 2012 at 7:57 am
” . . . the ridiculous joke of a puppet government we set up in Iraq is actually holding on. In fact, it’s setting in pretty solidly . . . ”
Huh?
“Iraq blasts kill 100 as fugitive VP gets death sentence”
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/09/us-iraq-hashemi-idUSBRE88806O20120909
43. Dimitri Ratz | September 13th, 2012 at 9:58 am
@43, shit, their murder is done a little bit different, but murder rate is a murder rate.
44. Nolan | September 13th, 2012 at 10:46 am
The War Nerd is great and all but when is Dolan going to write again under his own name?
45. Anton | September 13th, 2012 at 11:39 am
I think Dolan should just write under ONE weird pseudonym – besides Brecher – and stick to that. Try googling John Dolan. There are too many people named John Dolan and too few writing like John Dolan.
46. DtD | September 13th, 2012 at 12:24 pm
@44 Yes yes, that would be nice. But seeing as Dolan got fired for his writing from his teaching gig I would probably expect nothing but pseudonyms from now on. It’s not terribly hard to spot a Dolan piece, after all: they are the REALLY, REALLY good semi-poetic ones that don’t go in much for traditional journalism (Yasha) or Bloodthirsty/humorous contemporary politics (Mark). At least recently. But fuck, what do I know? Half the shit could be all mixed up again just to fuck with readers like the old .ru days. I used to wonder what the comments section on that site would have looked like.
47. Mr. Bad | September 13th, 2012 at 5:50 pm
I love me sum war nerd! Where else can you get a 3rd rate John Keegan to comment in a “War Room” style “Wired” article in a style the “Small Wars” blog has already appropriated about a matter only Monday morning quarterbacks give two fucks about! GO EXILED!
PS
Dolan you can’t write a sex scene unless it’s humiliating. I bought “Pleasant Hell” on Amazon, USED!
48. Pat Kittle | September 13th, 2012 at 7:49 pm
Gary,
It’s great that you like to avoid controversy and all that, but Israel has something to do with all this.
C’mon, tell us about Israel.
49. The Gubbler | September 13th, 2012 at 11:47 pm
What is the big deal about this “War Nerd” fellow”???
50. Jumppu | September 14th, 2012 at 1:22 am
Fantastic, very glad to have you back Gary.
51. Eurotrash | September 14th, 2012 at 8:49 am
Very glad you’re back in business, Gary. Missed you!
Hope NSFW works out for you financially.
52. Tyler | September 14th, 2012 at 11:17 am
Ok, so I went to this NSFW thing, because well, I’ve been an Ames/Dolan/Brecher fan ever since they taught me how to get laid in Moscow when I was an exchange student there.
But really, all this NSFW thing appears to be is a bunch of liberal journalists making fun of republicans. Nothing particularly interesting or insightful aside from Ames’ article on Mormons and Dr. Dolans article linked above. It’s basically, a slightly less mature version of Slate.com
What the fuck guys? Lose these deadweights. Get some writers with teeth in there, like you guys. Not a bunch of Obama ass kissers.
53. Al | September 14th, 2012 at 1:44 pm
Just a few niggling if’s and buts. I would point out that the perfidious hun reccieved an equal shock at the battle of the Marne facing fire brought about by 303 Lee Enfields. Difference being that they didn’t have to wait for an entire officer corps of ‘Ruperts’ to die before they learnt their lesson. I would guess a day would suffice, only problem with the Boer war was that not enough public school boy officers were killed before we had to play the main event. The pity being had the British Army started promoting on ability rather than who’s father had sodomised who’s at public school after the Boer war we might not have had that mudering incompetent old bastard Haig in charge. By the way if the UK had decided to hang onto the empire and not have fought either war my guess would be that the US would probably have had to make peace with Germany and made quite a few concessions to the Japanese. Crossing the channel is one thing invading across the atlantic quite another.
54. Mr. Bad | September 14th, 2012 at 3:53 pm
@ 53. Al
So French was better, eh? Haig wasn’t inclined to linger over the sufferings of his soldiers,unlike the great humanitarian French who prolonged a war with his dithering and moping which is no doubt an honor in your household (loser). He was a better general than Falkenhayn who was a better general than everyone other than Ludendorff.
55. John Drinkwater | September 14th, 2012 at 6:46 pm
So Obama is a good fighter because he instigates yet more war and fighting? Yeah, he’s good at killing people, but so what?
I understand the WN doesn’t care about the moral implications of any of this, but what about basic war strategy of actually winning? Is Obama’s aggressiveness winning the WOT? I think not. Therefore, he sucks.
56. philbart | September 15th, 2012 at 12:55 am
Highly skeptical of the claim that Tyler Bass has ever gotten laid.
57. Grant K | September 15th, 2012 at 10:43 am
Brecher’s always had a hard on for Canada, thinking we’re all smug and prissy. But we like war well enough. I’ll point out that Canada’s been part of every major war America has been in the last 100 years, other than your two greatest shitshows: Vietnam and Iraq. Smug, no. Smart, yes!
58. Al | September 15th, 2012 at 12:16 pm
Hello Mr Bad certainly did not wish to give the impression I consider any of the British generals of the time to be anything more than incompetent murdering upper class bastards, and I apologise if that came over that way in my diatribe. Ludendorff was pretty close to being a competent and talented military leader and indeed if his plans for the Schlieffen Plan had not been interfered with by upper class amatuer murdering aristo bastards on the German side it probably would probably have led to complete German victorty in a matter of months. Positive side at least that gobshite Kitchener drowned before he could really sod things up.
59. Eddie | September 15th, 2012 at 1:23 pm
Agreed on the dumb and crazy part. At this point no further evidence for this is needed for us to accept this at face value.
On Obamas record however I would disagree. To me he seems like a guy intent on fighting forrest fires by the exclusive use of napalm. The fact that new fires seem to turn up after every successful fire fighting mission does not seem to phase him much.
60. Tyler Bass | September 15th, 2012 at 6:57 pm
@56 Find Jesus.
61. CB | September 16th, 2012 at 9:22 am
@ 32 Cum
“Those weapons are going to be turned against Americans.”
That’s why we took out Qaddafi’s pathetic airforce ourselves, and didn’t give the rebels anti-aircraft weapons. =D
62. nikon | September 16th, 2012 at 12:28 pm
rebels have anti-aircraft weapons, thousands of gaddafi’s manpads have been stolen by rebels
63. Whyawannaknow | September 17th, 2012 at 8:52 am
@62- which MANPAD hardware did Momar stock? And how much are they going for on the black market…
64. Whyawannaknow | September 18th, 2012 at 7:22 am
Eh. A bit of google-fu answers the question: quite a few SA-7’s, but not so many of the required grip-stock units. Several nice pics of missiles stacked in the back of pickup trucks down at the local bazar with money changeling hands, they’re never going to get those all back.
There were a scary looking number of SA-24’s- But they’re a model designed for a large vehicle mounted launch system, no evidence so far of ANY of the grip-stocks required for shoulder launch, and the vehicle mounts are largely accounted for. Also questions of compatability between these missiles and the different launch system hardware/software interfaces.
That being said, the looters did seem to concentrate on ANYTHING with a heat seeking/antiaircraft capability- Some bright boys may be able to cobble up a functional launch system before the hardware degrades.
As the world continues to look more and more like a William Gibson novel, I expect to see some interesting blowback from all of this…
65. Al | September 18th, 2012 at 3:03 pm
For Christ’s sake don’t get so paranoid guys I’m sure various western control agencies have it all under under control, apart from thosr who were making sure the the Israelis and South Africa never got hold of nukes, OH SHIT WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE!
66. Mr. Bad | September 18th, 2012 at 5:22 pm
@ 58. Al
OK, fair enough. In other news:
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/09/engine-china-stealth-fighter/
China, our erstwhile forever frenemy and legit “military threat” runs into some trouble with their new “stealth fighter” when they realize they can’t build engines to power it without RUSSKI brain power.I bet their super precise deadly ship killing DF21’s are “state of the art though”, but the real question is this, does a dead fish flop twice? Oh China, my home and native land … J. Dolan 1955-2012
67. CensusLouie | September 18th, 2012 at 10:26 pm
Ummmm, what about the Osama hit squad? That was kind of the ultimate cheerleading over smart warfare stunt. I couldn’t go outside for a week after for fear of running into some yahoo blathering on about it like a pro wrestling announcer.
Surely it would have been the smarter play to not make him a martyr? Having him wither away from kidney failure wouldn’t exactly inspire too many jihads.
68. Bahama Papa | September 22nd, 2012 at 2:06 pm
Ok, so the War Nerd is on NSFW.com. I’ll sign up. I’ll pay. $3 per month is nothing. BUT, I’m in Germany and my credit card charges me “foreign transaction fee” for each $3. I don’t mind paying for 2 or 3 years in advance, all at once. Cheap!. That makes more sense. But there is no “contact us” feature on this (or their) website. No contact information. They say you can cancel anytime. How? If there is not even a contact e-mail. Somebody help me. Ich haette gern War Nerd, bitte. I know I’m a Nazi and into weird porn and all that, but, somebody help me please!
69. Eddie | September 22nd, 2012 at 2:16 pm
@66. Mr. Bad
Why bother with this small details? They cannot build these engines but the Russians can. Perhaps you have not noticed but Russian, China and India have a defacto military alliance.
In the event of war the Chinese will get as many of these engines as they like.
70. CB | September 23rd, 2012 at 3:43 pm
@ 62 nikon:
Obviously we can’t stop them from getting any weapons. The point is to not get hoisted by your own petard. What Qaddafi had is no threat to us (or destroyed).
71. niko | September 23rd, 2012 at 10:16 pm
CIA now admit it has been operating in libya since the beginning of the libyan war
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/24/world/africa/attack-in-libya-was-major-blow-to-cia-efforts.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
72. Dimitri Ratz | September 28th, 2012 at 12:30 pm
Obama just gave $45 million to same terrorist elements in Syria and this is after American Ambassador was murdered. Sure this will make them more pro-American. What a fuckup.
73. Dimitri Ratz | September 28th, 2012 at 3:05 pm
I think this determined my vote for this November. It’s too much blood on Obama’s hands for me to vote for this man and sleep at night. I’m going to check out Green Party.
74. Dimitri Ratz | September 28th, 2012 at 3:21 pm
I mean it’s one thing hunting some dangerous wild boar that weighs more than a bear and that hunt as packs. This is like killing a defenseless chicken, and worse not even eating it’s meat, but leaving it’s frail body to return to the earth in most disgusting ways just rotting on the sidewalk.
75. Dimitri Ratz | September 29th, 2012 at 12:11 am
In Tolstoy’s Resurrection, his greatest love story, the main character had to go to people he didn’t respect, and who were repulsive in order to get Katusha freed. I guess that’s where most of us are with Obama.
76. Hello | October 5th, 2012 at 6:46 am
@68. Bahama Papa
I would emal the exiled email or possibly mark ames and ask since they/ he would probably know
here is a list
http://exiledonline.com/contact-us/
77. Mr. Bad | October 6th, 2012 at 11:43 pm
Can I nominate a dumbest comment of the year ? If so could it be this for 2012″
69. Eddie “Russian, China and India have a defacto military alliance. ”
I’ll accept any decision the war nerd makes so long as he explains his reasoning.
78. Dimitri Ratz | October 8th, 2012 at 8:47 am
@77, the reference was probably to the BRIC organization (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) and now called BRICS since South Africa joined.
79. Eddie | December 24th, 2012 at 9:08 am
@77
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsRFAyxi6c0
Look what the Indians are buying. Rafale for ground attack and Russian stealth fighters for air to air.
After your glorious victories in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan maybe the Asians feel a bit less confidence in your abilities to win an actual war.
80. M. H. | April 1st, 2013 at 1:45 am
Mr. Dolan:
Do you think that I think you care about my opinion? Do you think you can stop this comment before I hurt myself?
81. Mongrel | April 11th, 2013 at 6:19 am
Sure do miss ya.
I’d love to hear a good old-fashioned War Nerd review of the possible outcomes of an actual North Korean attack on South Korea (leaving aside for a moment the actual possibility that happening or not happening).
A lot of people make hay about the sheer numbers NK’s got. Numbers do matter, with thousands of tanks (claimed to be something near the Abrams by outside sources, but I dunno), artillery peices, and missile batteries, but there’s one number that’s more important: A non-zero number of those tanks and artillery pieces and missile batteries will actually fire when their triggers are pressed, and some of those may even hit their marks, but how many is a big goddamned question mark.
Also, unless China decides to support them outright in a war, they’ll be starving in the dark with no gas in a week. And if China DOES support them, then we’ve all got way, way bigger problems besides the nutbar regime busting out like Rick James on funk.
But yeah, food and gas are a very serious question. Sure they wouldn’t kick in for a couple days, and you can do a lot of a damage in that time, but in a war a few days can either be forever, or nothing at all.
We are talking about a population where 80 percent of these people are thought to be malnourished to begin with and many will lack any sort of training or initiative to deal with adverse situations. Their generals are the product of politics and none have any combat experience whatsoever (as far as I know, which ain’t much, ha!). When they were shelling stationary islands, nobody was shooting back at them at first and they managed a decent accuracy rate on the second salvo, but in a real hot war, we’re going to see things shake out differently, I think.
Maybe as a lot of armchair jockeys say, Seoul will still fall and things will get very ugly before the South Koreans hold NK to a stalemate of some kind, but I think there’s a fair chance that won’t happen and a non-zero chance of a total military collapse by NK. Also, I think South Korea has a very fair chance of acheiving total air supremacy at least over its own territory, which is death for many of those invading tanks.
But this is all speculative bullshit! What does the War Nerd have to say? School me!