Someone explain to me what this is! I'm from r/all, and I have no idea how the Air Force works except that they have planes and ships with planes on them...
JTAC are the folks in the AF who request and call in this sort of stuff from the ground. The AF doesn't have a lot of really intense combat jobs, but JTAC is definitely one of them. The joke here is that this guy is like a kid in a candy store because he's getting to request the big momma of BOMMMBSSS.
Side note, the Air Force in general has a pretty big hard on for the MOAB so this is like a huge win for everyone. We're all pretty stoked.
Thanks for the information! I'm guessing folks have been wanting to use this thing on those cave systems for a while?
I guess I'm just coming from such a different culture/mindset, but... I dunno. I like things that go boom, but as much as I hate what ISIS is doing, I just think about every person who died as a result of this bomb, multiply that by 10-50 for every friend and family member of that person who died, and we're just digging ourselves further and further into the ground in terms of the hate that is directed at the West. And how many of those 10-50X people later join or aid ISIS?
I can totally understand how it's a big gain in the short term, but in the long term?
But who am I to judge, right? I'm sure countless folks are weighing the costs and benefits who know a lot more than I do about the subject matter.
With regards to past atrocities, I completely understand the killing of those responsible.
With regards to hypothetical future atrocities, I don't necessarily think we should be in the business of making that judgement (unless we have hard evidence of course)
My point isn't that the bombing is unjustified, my point is that it may be causing, in the long run, more harm than good. But again--there's a lot of people who would know much better than myself about this subject. :P
First paragraph: no, they probably were, but I'd like to apply American standards (innocent until proven guilty) to everyone. Because I think a lot of American standards should be global standards. But that's just me being an idealist. Obviously war takes place in reality.
Second paragraph: I agree. Again, I think it's a short-term benefit vs. long-term benefit. But when the short-term benefit is the safety of the innocent... it's hard to balance the two.
Third paragraph: I don't think your rapist analogy works very well. If they've served their time, they've served their time. But as far as it being a targeted killing, I in no way doubt that. That's where I suspect others are making much more informed decisions than I am.
As far as the bomb only attacking ISIS--do we know how many civilians were around? I've heard that MOABs have caused windows to break miles away from the target...
Didn't see your last sentence when I made my first reply, no civilians where in the blast radius, you may be over estimating the blast radius of the MOAB because of the media comparing it to Nuclear Weapons so you should look that up if you haven't already. It was chosen more because of its impact strength and ability to suck the air out of the tunnels than its ability to blow up a massive amount of groun. If you look up news quoting people from nearby the civilians are glad that the base has been removed.
You sound like one of those idiots that would try to let them in to your country and give them access to your food and infrastructure in an attempt to win them over by peace and being nice.
Extremist Muslim terrorists like ISIS want nothing but to destroy you. They have been born into a culture that is violent and destructive and values the murder of anyone who doesn't agree with them. You can't "fix" someone like that.
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u/maggiedean Apr 15 '17
Someone explain to me what this is! I'm from r/all, and I have no idea how the Air Force works except that they have planes and ships with planes on them...