Beautiful picture of an AC-130 gunship

[Bucky]

I found this image striking, captivating. The symmetry, of this magnificent bird, melding metal, rubber, sky, phosphorants, propulsion, and glide as it unloads its arsenal over a desert test range. One of these gorgeous babies flew over al-Qaeda training camps in Somalia Monday, delivering an explosive and well deserved vengence to the fundamentalists trying to turn Somalia into the next Afghanistan. What beauty. What awesome power.

U.S. launches another air strike in Somalia
January 24th, 2007

Washington, D.C. - A U.S. Air Force AC-130 gunship attacked suspected al Qaeda operatives in southern Somalia on Monday, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday, citing unidentified U.S. officials.

The newspaper said there was no information on the results or the specific targets of the air strike, which would be the second this month by U.S. forces.

Say, you don't suppose any civilians got caught up in all that ordnance too, do ya?

Tell ya what. I'm not even gonna think about it. That way lies madness. Instead, let's just take another look at this magnificent bird of prey pouring forth explosives and ordnance--20 mm M61 Vulcan cannons, 25 mm gatling guns, and 105 mm M102 howitzers. The sweet smell of victory in the air, the sizzle of freedom hissing in their ears, the whistle of impending doom cracking the dry desert air.

Go, baby, go!

The locals look up, or hopefully, al-Qaeda fighters instead. Too late they think they might have made mistakes in cheering along with bin Laden's message, joining his cause, listening to those recruiters who fed and validated their impotent anger. Why had it seemed so seductive to them? Why did they get so worked up hearing about American imperialism, the new crusaders desecrating the Holy Land and commiting atrocities at Abu Ghraib? Why indeed. Unless of course that American metal happen to fall on some civilian goat herder in the general area instead. If that's the case, his last thoughts are probably more along the lines of "Why me?"

BA-DA... BOOM!!

The great beast banks left and returns home. Mission accomplished. Probably. Now comes Miller time. God, I really hope we only hit the right people.



Why on earth are people still joining up with al-Qaeda, anyway? Don't they know we're bringing them democracy?

[petronius]

1. I hate to nitpick an otherwise finely crafted post,

but I think that all of the airplane pictures you included are anit-missile flares, not ordinance. Imagery of AC-130s firing weapons is actually far more impressive, terrifying, awe-inspiring, horrifying, mind-blowing, depressing (take your pick) than what you have here...

[Nostradammit]

5. impressive, yes

but not favorably.

[Bigmack]

2. Oooooo.....Oooooo......

I'm gettin' a chubby!

[Webster Green]

3. Taking gun porn to new heights?

Extremely provocative.B-)

[originalpckelly]

4. Unfortunately the last attack (before this Monday one) did not end up getting the al-Qaeda leader...

we were targeting, but instead hit a group of nomadic herders.

Sadly, though we had good intentions, we used a sword in place of a scalpel.

If we are going to conduct military operations in such a way, we need to have silent and stealthy small UAVs, smaller and quieter than the predator even, which can present an image to an operator to facially identify. (I say that knowing the amazing power of the human brain to recognize faces. Something which it is my understanding, computers are only beginning to touch.)

[Nostradammit]

6. You really want this government to have such a thing?

I don't.

Edit to add: I would if it came pre-loaded with pictures of the Chimp & Cheney.

[originalpckelly]

9. I know, I wonder if it would be right as well...

as technology advances it becomes possible for fewer and fewer people to exercise deadly/pain causing force on more and more people. Of course, killing one person through assassination has always been much easier than taking on many. That's why there is so much protection around former and current President's, in a sense they symbolize the power of America.

(And no Agent Mike, this is in no a threat. :hi:)

[Liberal In Texas]

7. Old Pic? Not sure checking.

It's a C-130 with counter-measures. These are not missiles killing Al Queda..

I've seen this pic before. I seem to think it's a training exerecise in the US deploying counter-measures. Finding the source might take awhile.

BUT, it is not as the text describes.

[Liberal In Texas]

8. BTW, Bucky, why would even post this?

It's nonsense propaganda from the RW.

I've seen this site where this came from. It's RW.

You've copied and pasted like crazy.

Hmmmm.

[originalpckelly]

10. I just got the post...

it's satire. It's so freaking clever you can't really tell, there is no real moment when you go, "hey this is satire".

Bucky needs to be :spank: for not including a :sarcasm: tag.

[Liberal In Texas]

11. Thanks for the satire "bump in my memory".

Yep. It was somewhere, I've seen it. And some RW bloggers etc. picked it up as fact.

Now this DU person posts it as ... what???

[Bucky]

12. I apologize for being subtle. I think the sarcasm tag is pretty stupid.

If you can't tell I'm being sarcastic from reading the post, either I don't deserve to have my point appreciated or you don't deserve to get it. Telling you I'm being sarcastic pretty much defeats the point of being sarcastic in the first place. I do not dumb down my material (and so, sometimes I post a dud).

Please, please note, however, that besides the stuff quoted in the gray excerpt box, every word in the post is my own. Nothing else was cut and pasted (as you wondered in your first post above). I don't plagiarize. Sometimes I steal, but I never plagiarize.

[Bridget Burke]

13. Even for satire, some of the pictures are beautiful.

The Bloody Sire
Jeffers, Robinson (1887-1962)

It is not bad. Let them play.
Let the guns bark and the bombing-plane
Speak his prodigious blasphemies.
It is not bad, it is high time,
Stark violence is still the sire of all the world's values.

What but the wolf's tooth chiseled so fine
The fleet limbs of the antelope?
What but fear winged the birds and hunger
Gemmed with such eyes the great goshawk's head?
Violence has been the sire of all the world's values.

Who would remember Helen's face
Lacking the terrible halo of spears?
Who formed Christ but Herod and Caesar,
The cruel and bloody victories of Caesar?
Violence has been the sire of all the world's values.

Never weep, let them play,
Old violence is not too old to beget new values.

[Bucky]

14. I was trying to make fun of that viewpoint. But the thing is, you're right.

I can understand the seductiveness of this kind of technology. I'm not seduced by it, but it does have a panther's kind of beauty.