We just dropped the largest non-nuclear bomb ever on Afghanistan.

Apparently the target was a complex of tunnels used by ISIS or AQ or the Taliban or someone we don't like very much.



"The mother of all bombs."


At least we can be assured that this was well thought out.


If I may ask a question:  Why was the Dow spooked after news got out about the bomb?  POTUS unpredictability inciting fear and worry in the masses?  

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/13...



DottyParker said:

If I may ask a question:  Why was the Dow spooked after news got out about the bomb?  POTUS unpredictability inciting fear and worry in the masses?  

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/13...

Who knows.  Dropping this bomb is no big deal assuming appropriate target selection.  You wouldn't want to use it in an urban area, that is for sure, but if the target is a remote cave and tunnel complex, it's a good choice.


Maybe the market has finally realized global conflict and uncertainty are more important than corporate-friendly regulations.

DottyParker said:

If I may ask a question:  Why was the Dow spooked after news got out about the bomb?  POTUS unpredictability inciting fear and worry in the masses?  

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/13...



Who knows? Don't you think that dropping the biggest bomb since freaking Hiroshima might be a bit worrisome?

This can't possibly turn out to be "good choice".

Can't wait until we start to hear reports of what actually got destroyed and who got killed.

tjohn said:



DottyParker said:

If I may ask a question:  Why was the Dow spooked after news got out about the bomb?  POTUS unpredictability inciting fear and worry in the masses?  

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/13...

Who knows.  Dropping this bomb is no big deal assuming appropriate target selection.  You wouldn't want to use it in an urban area, that is for sure, but if the target is a remote cave and tunnel complex, it's a good choice.



Not saying this was good or bad but the way you present it is symptomatic of the problem with discourse today. 

You make much of "largest non nuclear bomb" to make it seem like it is ALMOST a nuclear bomb. 

MOAB is .011 kiloton

The bomb dropped on Hiroshima which is much smaller than current nuclear weapons was 15 kilotons. 

So no, they are not at all in the same league.

http://digg.com/2017/moab-bomb...


So what do folks think of DJT's policy of giving military final choice on war tactics? I guess it's better than having him make decisions, but still a bit scary.



GL2 said:

So what do folks think of DJT's policy of giving military final choice on war tactics? I guess it's better than having him make decisions, but still a bit scary.

Business has picked up at the liquor stores.  



GL2 said:

She's a beaut!

This "Mother" is so heavy they needed to use a cargo plane with a ramp to drop it.


Holy cow.  It's just a conventional bomb.  As long as it is used appropriately, it's not news.  And by appropriately, I mean away from non-combatants.


from The Guardian:

...US allies have also felt the brunt of escalated US airstrikes. On Thursday, the Pentagon revealed that its Syrian allies in a Kurdish-led ground force, the Syrian Democratic Forces, requested an airstrike on an errant position erroneously believed to be held by Isis. The 11 April strike killed 18 fighters belonging to the Syrian Democratic Forces themselves. [meaning the US dropped bombs on friendly forces. J]

Air Force statistics released on Thursday show that March 2017 was the most intense month of the US-led bombing campaign against Isis in Iraq and Syria, a war nearly three years old. US warplanes fired 3,878 munitions in March, topping January 2017’s previous high of 3,600. 

In Afghanistan, US warplanes fired 203 weapons in March, the highest volume since October.

Hamid Karzai, the former president of Afghanistan installed in 2001 by the US and backed by the international community, tweeted that the bombing meant Afghans needed to “stop the USA”. "

I certainly don't find this news comforting, or think it's suddenly going to be the magical end to long-running military action around the world. 


It's like any war - you really need to ask if we should be at war at all, because there is no such thing as a tidy war.  There were large numbers of  friendly fire incidents in WW II and very large numbers of friendly civilian casualties.


The only good war is one that never starts


Hope there won't be a pattern of weekly bombings.  downer 

And my ears are aching from hearing the term MOAB over and over on every news report. 



Moab may have been dropped in rural Afghanistan but it was meant for North Korea.  We have an "Armada" heading there right now.   l suspect right about now Xi Jinping is warning Kim jong  un that there is a stockpile of them aimed at his bedroom window (s)



sarahzm said:

Moab may have been dropped in rural Afghanistan but it was meant for North Korea.  We have an "Armada" heading there right now.   l suspect right about now Xi Jinping is warning Kim jong  un that there is a stockpile of them aimed at his bedroom window (s)

Maybe, but this bomb has to be delivered by cargo planes which can't easily evade air defenses.  Beyond that, I have no idea how Trump's North Korean gambit is going to work out.  If it gets to the point where nobody can back down without being embarrassed, it going to be bad.


This bomb is way too clumsy to try and hit North Korea with it. (and can you believe we're talking about attacking North Korea? Thank you Republicans.)

Back to Afghanistan, CNN is reporting that 36 ISIS fighters were killed by the blast. (seems to me to be a pretty low body count for the mother of all bombs, but I digress...)

Anyway, they can't possibly know this. If these guys were in tunnels, can you imagine the rubble that has to be sifted through to find out who got killed? There's no way they would know that now. Whatever body count they tell us in the near future is pure speculation/b.s. on their part.


+1 tjohn:  "you really need to ask if we should be at war at all"

And that's the thing, the public (and Congress) are consulted less and less about all this:  no announcements, no debates, no exit criteria, suddenly we're just committed again.  Feeling very bad about the US these days.


Seems like a tremendous waste of $$$

If this is correct it probably could have paid for free tuition for college for everyone


https://theduran.com/snowden-a...


What is your view, good or bad, on WWII (and stopping Hitler)?

author said:

The only good war is one that never starts



Trump promised to "bomb the sh#t" out of ISIS during the campaign.

These stats should surprise no one.

joanne said:

from The Guardian:

...US allies have also felt the brunt of escalated US airstrikes. On Thursday, the Pentagon revealed that its Syrian allies in a Kurdish-led ground force, the Syrian Democratic Forces, requested an airstrike on an errant position erroneously believed to be held by Isis. The 11 April strike killed 18 fighters belonging to the Syrian Democratic Forces themselves. [meaning the US dropped bombs on friendly forces. J]

Air Force statistics released on Thursday show that March 2017 was the most intense month of the US-led bombing campaign against Isis in Iraq and Syria, a war nearly three years old. US warplanes fired 3,878 munitions in March, topping January 2017’s previous high of 3,600. 

In Afghanistan, US warplanes fired 203 weapons in March, the highest volume since October.

Hamid Karzai, the former president of Afghanistan installed in 2001 by the US and backed by the international community, tweeted that the bombing meant Afghans needed to “stop the USA”. "

I certainly don't find this news comforting, or think it's suddenly going to be the magical end to long-running military action around the world. 



$314,000,000 is incorrect.

http://dailycaller.com/2017/04...

hoops said:

Seems like a tremendous waste of $$$

If this is correct it probably could have paid for free tuition for college for everyone




https://theduran.com/snowden-a...



http://www.bbc.com/news/world-...

Since we're caught up supporting your troops in both the Middle East and in Afghanistan, I'd rather the one-upmanship didn't spread to the Koreas, thank you.



RealityForAll said:

What is your view, good or bad, on WWII (and stopping Hitler)?
author said:

The only good war is one that never starts

I for one consider WWII to have been a pretty awful thing for just about everyone, especially Jews. (The current crop of Republican leadership would disagree, of course.)



drummerboy said:

This bomb is way too clumsy to try and hit North Korea with it. (and can you believe we're talking about attacking North Korea? Thank you Republicans.)

Back to Afghanistan, CNN is reporting that 36 ISIS fighters were killed by the blast. (seems to me to be a pretty low body count for the mother of all bombs, but I digress...)


Anyway, they can't possibly know this. If these guys were in tunnels, can you imagine the rubble that has to be sifted through to find out who got killed? There's no way they would know that now. Whatever body count they tell us in the near future is pure speculation/b.s. on their part.

Modern bombs are laser guided, so they do hit where aimed.  The question is whether the target is based on sound Intel.


I believe MOAB is GPS guided. As for clumsy, I wasn't talking about accuracy, I was talking about delivery systems. Pushing it out the back of a cargo plane is pretty clunky and much easier to defend against than a more modern bomber. 

tomcat said:



drummerboy said:

This bomb is way too clumsy to try and hit North Korea with it. (and can you believe we're talking about attacking North Korea? Thank you Republicans.)

Back to Afghanistan, CNN is reporting that 36 ISIS fighters were killed by the blast. (seems to me to be a pretty low body count for the mother of all bombs, but I digress...)


Anyway, they can't possibly know this. If these guys were in tunnels, can you imagine the rubble that has to be sifted through to find out who got killed? There's no way they would know that now. Whatever body count they tell us in the near future is pure speculation/b.s. on their part.

Modern bombs are laser guided, so they do hit where aimed.  The question is whether the target is based on sound Intel.




RealityForAll said:

What is your view, good or bad, on WWII (and stopping Hitler)?
author said:

The only good war is one that never starts

Why not answer your own question?


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