Thread

1. Almondsetat · 1790809198 · focus · HN ↗

   The incredible and futuristic technologies the US managed to deploy decades before the competition reminds me of the story of how the NRO gifted NASA a couple of their old decommissioned satellites in 2012 and they turned out to be basically upgraded Hubble telescopes pointed at earth. The US from the 90s to the 2000s had multiple Hubble-level telescopes just for spying while NASA was fighting for scraps to study the entire cosmos.

   1. reacharavindh · 1790844112 · focus · HN ↗

      The thing that always leaves me flabbergasted when I read such fascinating facts of such great technological power held by the US is that they seem to always waste it.... :-(

      If they had such "eyes" on our earth, couldn't they have clearly spotted those Methane emissions from Turkmenistan well earlier than the UN MARS program did? or many "beneficial" to humanity things I cannot even think of right away.

      Even militarily... US wanted to avoid the Hormuz Strait closure.. I think that was a clear enough military goal. Could nt they spot where the mines are, and where the attacking positions are from their mighty tech instead of this prolonged war? As in, the strikes they did already - couldnt they have taken out all attacking capacity right away if they had such powerful tech eyes?

      1. hexapus · 1790844840 · focus · HN ↗

         Counterpoint: The people running the government right now are very, very stupid.

         1. refurb · 1790847362 · focus · HN ↗

            The people running the government are the same ones running it 4 years ago. It’s only a handful at the very top that change.

            1. idiotsecant · 1790848638 · focus · HN ↗

               Yes... The ones who 'run' it. Mid level government employees are worker bees, they aren't setting policy.

               1. throwaway85825 · 1790871235 · focus · HN ↗

                  If they don't want it they slow roll it a different policy is stated. If they want it they do it immediately, maybe it's illegal or unconstitutional, but it will take 20 years for the court to eventually rule on it and by then it's a forgone conclusion.
            2. pjc50 · 1790849750 · focus · HN ↗

               Dunno, I think Hegseth is changing more than a handful of top brass in a very Stalinesque ideological purge. 20% of generals feels like a lot.

               1. scrumper · 1790854875 · focus · HN ↗

                  Yes it's quite bad what that muppet is up to but it's not Stalin level yet.

                  Decades ago I wrote a paper, lost to time now, on the effect of his military purges on the fighting effectiveness of the Red Army during the back half of WW2. He purged not just senior commanders but mid ranks and up, think like down as far as their equivalent of majors. A vast amount of battle-relevant experience was swept away, much more damaging in the day-to-day grind than simply disappearing a few field marshals.

                  My point is, hope is not lost for the US military. Yes lots of irreplaceable senior experience is being tossed aside for unforgivably stupid and pointless reasons, but there's a lot of recent, hard-won, actual shooting war experience in the officer corps which, if they don't all bugger off in disgust, will serve us well in future. Today's captains and majors are well aware of how drones in Ukraine have changed battle[1], to give one example, and the career-minded among them will be in doctrine-influencing and development positions before too long.

                  I'm aware this is to some degree wishful thinking.

                  [1]I chose this example because it's going to be one of that drunken fool's more consequential errors: re-tasking the Army unit charged with developing drone capabilities for the US.

                  1. superxpro12 · 1790952603 · focus · HN ↗

                     Russia won not because of tactical brilliance, but because they simply threw biomass at the problem.

                     Just throw enough barely armored tanks and bodies at the problem, and the germans eventually run out of resources. It only took about 9M soldiers. Glorious sacrifices for the benefit of Stalin.

                     Consider how many lives would have been saved with a shred of tactical brilliance.

            3. preisschild · 1790859892 · focus · HN ↗

               The current admin is waging a war on them (the deep state) and is trying to replace them with loyal MAGAts
         2. easyThrowaway · 1790859555 · focus · HN ↗

            They are not - at least not in the way we commonly think; they simply have other priorities. They simply couldn't care less anymore about telling better lies than their predecessors.

            1. mandeepj · 1790868972 · focus · HN ↗

               > They simply couldn't care less anymore about telling better lies than their predecessors.

               4 years ago, people didn't fill their pockets on the current scale, and they also didn't pitch their own businesses under the cover of national interests.

               1. throwaway85825 · 1790871084 · focus · HN ↗

                  They absolutely did and have been doing so for centuries. Spoils system and all that. For a while they just got better at hiding it.

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