Hard News: Don't Panic
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"Most armed UK police have used the HK47 rifle as their weapon of choice for years."
Had another look this arvo - I didn't want to stare but they looked (from about 5 feet away) to be HK MP5's or 10's to me... scary, interesting tho'.
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I don't think H&K produces a 47. They have a 417. The MP5 is indeed the weapon of choice for 'serious' police activities.
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Had another look this arvo - I didn't want to stare but they looked (from about 5 feet away) to be HK MP5's or 10's to me... scary, interesting tho'.
I have no idea of what brand of automatic weapon the uniformed infants stalking around Changi airport in Singapore were holding, but they certainly freaked me out. I prefer my weapon-wielding airport soldiers to look old enough to shave. And the schoolboy scowling and wearing mirror shades with his hand on the trigger of his gun was just out of order.
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how to carry a weapon in a safe manner ie finger off the trigger
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The whole concept of police with automatic weapons concerns me.
Semi-auto is fine = one aimed shot with an auto reload.
Fully automatic weapons are designed to scare more than kill - to suppress or pin down = lots of innocent deaths.
Also a good blast on full-auto and the impact area can increase greatly. -
I have no idea of what brand of automatic weapon the uniformed infants stalking around Changi airport in Singapore were holding, but they certainly freaked me out.
welcome to Asia...we have machine gun armed polisi at malls, hotels, certain high profile restaurants, embassies etc. Thailand and Malaysia are the same.
Still I'd rather these guys symbolically toted than the other guys....... The age of those guys in Changi does worry me though. They tend to be trained adults elsewhere. I had a smiling polisi point a gun at me outside my gym a couple of weeks back. The Timor Leste Truth Commission was meeting in the same hotel and I tried to use the wrong door.
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Slowly the moral relativist wool is falling from people's eyes and the world is making progress toward a better understanding of the real causes and reality of Islamic terrorism. Better late than never.
the wool may be being pulled over someones eyes, James, but whose is another question.
With such glaring discrepancies in his own accounts of his life and experiences, it is clear that there is nothing substantial in any of Butt's testimonies that can be relied upon.
It was, after all, in the Daily Mail.
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Hussan Butt
He seems damaged and depressed or a fantasist lonley loser on the edge of everything and involved in nothing.
I believe what he said about the whole drug thing but he tied terrorism to marriage. That doesn't fit.
He reminds me of a guy who played soldiers with me for a year and then left & published a book (through Bill Rolston) on intellegence and later wrote for Investigate. I forget his name but it might as well be Hussan Butt.
I hope Butt converts to fundy TV Christianity - he'll get everything he wants there.Irshad Manji - She is one impressive woman.
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Oh I shud clarify I have no special military knowledge and neither do any of my mate - well not that they've told me.
I do remeber laughing when we saw his book in Withcolls (around 2000).
He said he was told he's shit in camp but a great soldier in the field. True he was told that, but we couldn't say - you're absolute crap at everything you do.
If only I could remeber his name. It's something odd. -
He reminds me of a guy who played soldiers with me for a year and then left & published a book (through Bill Rolston) on intellegence and later wrote for Investigate.
Ben Vidgin?
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Who I can confirm was crap at absolutely everything he did...
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Michael F,
Article by Irshad Manji, who as I think you noted, it one hell of a brave and intelligent woman.
Irshad Manji: Religion is the root cause of terrorist threat
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,22018577-7583,00.html
If Islam has nothing to do with Islamic terrorism, then why are many muslim terrorists reported to cry "Alluh Akbar" ar "Allah" as they carry out their act of terrorism?
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Thank you Emma - quite right.
I only comment on what he put into the media not anything else.
James
We all invoke our religion in the things we do (those of us who are)- The Pope has asked Catholics to cross themselves before driving - doesn't mean we have right of way at an intersection.Have you heard the song "On ward Christian Soldier marching as to war"?
I don't draw a strong distinction between my G/G/uncles who lie in Flanders Fields after bayonet charges & military targeted suicide bombers.
Not to crawl down the revisionist road but the bombing of Dresden etc was targeting the civilian population.
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James
America is a fine country in many respects.
Just forgien policy really pisses everyone off.
As my mother often says "Love the sinner, not the sin". -
merc,
The bombing of Dresden etc was targeting the civilian population.
Worse still it was targeting Hitlers favourite dinnerware manufacturer.
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If Islam has nothing to do with Islamic terrorism, then why are many muslim terrorists reported to cry "Alluh Akbar" ar "Allah" as they carry out their act of terrorism?
I'm not sure who I dislike most James, the guy blowing up a bus, or those, like yourself, sitting in a nation evoking god whilst your bombs and proxies do your work. I guess I think your're both just as culpable...the end result is little different.
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I'm not sure who I dislike most James, the guy blowing up a bus, or those, like yourself, sitting in a nation evoking god whilst your bombs and proxies do your work. I guess I think you’re both just as culpable...the end result is little different.
So let me see, let’s think about countries where the US either imposed its will or stayed around long enough to significantly influence the society. Japan, Germany, South Korea spring to mind, and are three of the most successful countries in the world over the last 60 years since the US began its involvement.
You could say the US is major contributor to China's extraordinary growth and development of the last 20 years by buying so much of what China manufactures, and the fact that the Chinese are adopting so many US methods and ways of doing business.
And let's think of the societies or countries where various organizations that use suicide bombers run, or ran the show. Let's think about Afghanistan under the Taliban, the West Bank and Gaza under Arafat, and now Gaza under Hamas. Iran under the Mullahs. You could add Saudi Arabia to the list as well, as it is the home of Wahhabism. Most people would think of these countries as pretty miserable places to live.
And you are telling me that the "end result is little different"? So you would be just as happy living in Afghanistan under the Taliban as you would be living in Germany Japan or South Korea? Really?
Simon, I can't get into your head, so I don't know how you came to this view of the world, but it is about as twisted as a pretzel.
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Michael,
Yes, the US is a fine country in many respects, and unfortunately in some respects it is not a fine country. But I think it is both fair and accurate to say the that the good outweighs the bad by a pretty significant margin.
Be interesting to see what happens after the next election, as whoever wins the presidency will not be a rough spoken, Bible belt Christian ex oil-man, which seems to create a lot of suspicion regarding the motives and actions of the incumbent.
I am not sure there will be the sea change in US policy for which many people are looking, whoever wins. For example, Hillary has said she would leave troops in Iraq to perform certain tasks that are estimated to require 75,000 troops in Iraq for years. Be interesting to see how people react to that, if it happens.
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So let me see, let’s think about countries where the US either imposed its will or stayed around long enough to significantly influence the society. Japan, Germany, South Korea spring to mind, and are three of the most successful countries in the world over the last 60 years since the US began its involvement.
I like this game of "let's name the country". I'll take 'V' for Vietnam, and you can pretty much take your pick of a punch of countries in Central America, but the invasion of Panama and the involvement in Nicaragua come to mind pretty quickly.
And Japan and Germany were pretty successful countries before US involvement. Both have been major players in their regions, economic and military and cultural strengths well into the 19th century, and indeed before. You can't link their current strength and say that it's due to US involvement.
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Kyle,
Japan wasn't so hot before 1945, a relatively backward more or less feudal society. 50 years later it was the second wealthiest country in the world, and a stable democracy. A bloody amazing performance. Full credit to the Japs, but they didn't do it all by themselves.Re Germany, compare West Germany with East Germany in 1989. I think Germany was the 3rd largest economy in the world and East Germany was a basket case.
Mores the pity that the Yanks pulled the plug on South Vietnam in 1974. With US military and economic aid SV had stood on their own two feet for a couple of years, but with no US support while the NVA had Soviet and Chinese aid, the fall of SV was inevitable. As were the "reeducation camps" and boat people etc that followed the NVA victory. If the US had continued to support the SVA, South Vietnam would probably be something like South Korea now, with North Vietnam being like it is today, closer to North Korea than South Korea. It is good that Vietnam is heading in the right direction these days.
I don't understand your point about Panama. The Yanks kicked out Noriega who is now sitting in a US jail. I had several friends at grad school who were from Panama, I have been to Panama 3 times since 1993 and I have never picked up much anti-American feeling. My friends hated Noriega and were pleased that the Yanks booted him out; they thought he was just a cheap little thug. Panama is a stable and relatively prosperous country; the Panamanians are in charge of their canal. The worst thing I can think of that Panama has to deal with is a lot of drug money in their banking system from Colombia, but it hasn’t seemed to impact Panama’s stability too badly (and drug money is only indirectly and partially the US' fault)
What’s your beef about Panama?
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Japan wasn't so hot before 1945, a relatively backward more or less feudal society . . .
F*cked if I know where you channel this hogwash from, but even to someone locked into the mindset that all good in the world stems from the rectum of the GOP it should be bloody obvious that a 'feudal' society would be unable to mount the attacks on Pearl Harbour, let alone drive all the old colonial powers from East Asia and overrun China. Fascist, yes. Feudal, no way - like Germany, Japan had a parliamentary democracy in place well before 1900.
It took two nuclear devices and the massive firebombing of Tokyo to force 'backward and feudal' Japan to capitulate. Certainly the Japanese army & airforce were overconfident and arrogant - unlike the navy, which had made regular visits to the US West coast in the interwar years, they had little idea of the US's industrial might. But backward? Far from it.
Japan was an ally in WW1 - the armed escorts that accompanied the first NZ troops sent to Gallipoli were Japanese. Try learning something of history before you mouth off. -
Mores the pity that the Yanks pulled the plug on South Vietnam in 1974.
Ba? Wha? Huh?
Translation: if only the US hadn't stopped after they killed two million Vietnamese and completely destroyed the entire country, things would have been totally rad over there!
Heh. That argument is so fundamentally and thoroughly crackers that it's actually almost awesome. I salute you, sir! You are truly the stuff from which neocon dreams are woven.
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My friends hated Noriega and were pleased that the Yanks booted him out; they thought he was just a cheap little thug.
Yes, but he was the US' cheap little thug. As was Saddam, Marcos, and every other tinpot dictator that suited the US' interests aboard. That's the freakin' point. America is a great country, but it's also a great hypocrite some (alot) of the times.
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America is a great country, but it's also a great hypocrite some (alot) of the times.
One of the very simple points that eludes James, when he does his skewered variations on history lists that often, rather irrelevantly, pepper his responses to current events. Oh, and Noriega was also a cheap little thug who ran cocaine for Ollie North and the CIA and knew too much...not that that had anything to do with his demise.
And you are telling me that the "end result is little different"? So you would be just as happy living in Afghanistan under the Taliban as you would be living in Germany Japan or South Korea? Really?
Simon, I can't get into your head, so I don't know how you came to this view of the world, but it is about as twisted as a pretzel.
Point, meet James...he completely missed you again. What in gods name does Japan, Germany, or for that matter China have to do with anything my post. So what...
Then again, as both Danielle and Joe quite well point out you are as seemingly ignorant of history as you are of contemporary events. Remember, Pearl Harbour took the US by surprise because they could not envisage how "short sighted" orientals could possibly navigate or fly modern aircraft. The US's defence in the Pacific was centred around racial bigotry.
Prior to WW2 Japan was one of the most industrialized nations in the world....you had P-26s in Manilla when they came in in Zeros.
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James
Japan kicked Russias ass - something the yanks never did.
The feudal society had Tom Cruise on their side - gotta lose.
And to give dignity to those who died or were imprisoned by the Japanese it would be desent to remeber them as they were,a modern and motivated fighting force.
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