The Off Topic Topic

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

Your over-the-top sensationalist nutjob article of the day:

The Sunburn Missile: The Weapon That Could Defeat The US In The Gulf

"The Sunburn – Iran's Awesome Nuclear Anti-Ship Missile
The Weapon That Could Defeat The US In The Gulf"
By Mark Gaffney

"A word to the reader: The following paper is so shocking that, after preparing the initial draft, I didn't want to believe it myself, and resolved to disprove it with more research. However, I only succeeded in turning up more evidence in support of my thesis. And I repeated this cycle of discovery and denial several more times before finally deciding to go with the article. I believe that a serious writer must follow the trail of evidence, no matter where it leads, and report back. So here is my story. Don't be surprised if it causes you to squirm. Its purpose is not to make predictions history makes fools of those who claim to know the future but simply to describe the peril that awaits us in the Persian Gulf. By awakening to the extent of that danger, perhaps we can still find a way to save our nation and the world from disaster. If we are very lucky, we might even create an alternative future that holds some promise of resolving the monumental conflicts of our time. – MG

In July, 2004, they dubbed it operation Summer Pulse: a simultaneous mustering of US Naval forces, world wide, that was unprecedented. According to the Navy, it was the first exercise of its new Fleet Response Plan (FRP), the purpose of which was to enable the Navy to respond quickly to an international crisis. The Navy wanted to show its increased force readiness, that is, its capacity to rapidly move combat power to any global hot spot. Never in the history of the US Navy had so many carrier battle groups been involved in a single operation. Even the US fleet massed in the Gulf and eastern Mediterranean during operation Desert Storm in 1991, and in the recent invasion of Iraq, never exceeded six battle groups. But last July and August there were seven of them on the move, each battle group consisting of a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier with its full complement of 7-8 supporting ships, and 70 or more assorted aircraft. Most of the activity, according to various reports, was in the Pacific, where the fleet participated in joint exercises with the Taiwanese navy.
But why so much naval power underway at the same time? What potential world crisis could possibly require more battle groups than were deployed during the recent invasion of Iraq? In past years, when the US has seen fit to "show the flag" or flex its naval muscle, one or two carrier groups have sufficed. Why this global show of power? The news headlines about the joint-maneuvers in the South China Sea read: "Saber Rattling Unnerves China", and: "Huge Show of Force Worries Chinese." But the reality was quite different, and, as we shall see, has grave ramifications for the continuing US military presence in the Persian Gulf; because operation Summer Pulse reflected a high-level Pentagon decision that an unprecedented show of strength was needed to counter what is viewed as a growing threat in the particular case of China, because of Peking's newest Sovremenny-class destroyers recently acquired from Russia.

"Nonsense!" you are probably thinking. That's impossible. How could a few picayune destroyers threaten the US Pacific fleet?" Here is where the story thickens: Summer Pulse amounted to a tacit acknowledgement, obvious to anyone paying attention, that the United States has been eclipsed in an important area of military technology, and that this qualitative edge is now being wielded by others, including the Chinese; because those otherwise very ordinary destroyers were, in fact, launching platforms for Russian-made 3M-82 Moskit anti-ship cruise missiles (NATO designation: SS-N-22 Sunburn), a weapon for which the US Navy currently has no defense. Here I am not suggesting that the US status of lone world Superpower has been surpassed. I am simply saying that a new global balance of power is emerging, in which other individual states may, on occasion, achieve "an asymmetric advantage" over the US.

It just gets better (worse) from there.

The worst part is, it was posted as a serious link here.  I'm trying to fight the good fight, but I just want to go to bed right now.

[CountDeMoney]

We have to watch out for T-62 armor, too.

[Razgovory]

I got a hold of this shocking footage of Dguller leaving his apartment the other day.





Don't ask how I came by it.

[The Brain]

[DGuller]

I got a hold of this shocking footage of Dguller leaving his apartment the other day.





Don't ask how I came by it.

[Admiral Yi]

[Razgovory]

Okay, what now?

[Ed Anger]

I got a hold of this shocking footage of Dguller leaving his apartment the other day.





Don't ask how I came by it.

I laughed.

[Eddie Teach]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ppq6CLu48fQ

More Guller footage.

[Ed Anger]

http://youtu.be/Pa1pIO4_lUY

[Josephus]

So....um......what is creampie?

I imagine it has something to do with money shots...but my imagination stops there.

[Razgovory]

So....um......what is creampie?

I imagine it has something to do with money shots...but my imagination stops there.

Cookies you get in the supermarket.  They have cream in them.

[Josephus]

I've decided I don't really want to know.

[Admiral Yi]

Mansauce oozing out of a femorifice.

[Razgovory]

I've decided I don't really want to know.

See, perfectly innocent.