Where does anyone get the idea that I'm the slightest bit interested in Tom Clancy novels or movies?
Because you Dayton3 make claims even more sensational than stuff found in novels or the movies
A single friendly fire incident where a USAF F-15 mistakenly shot down two Blackhawk helicopters over northern Iraq in the late 1990s killed 18 Americans.
Remember, a lot of U.S. soldiers die from friendly fire and in accidents involved in doing things like "enforcing no fly zones or embargos".
That accounts for only 18 deaths

I find your claim that 400-600 United States troops died all by themselves during the Clinton era, dying from friendly fire enforcing the no fly zone not only to be ludicrous
but also INSULTING to the US military
Life is so much easier to enjoy if you embrace the inevitable with enthusiasm
what "inevitable"?
I'm trying to get into your mindset and I certainly don't understand why you want to start playing chicken with the Chinese and Russians. We've done that crap before during the Coldwar, we both went to the brink realized it was stupid.
In the 60s, 70s and 80s we faced a much bigger enemy since the Soviet Union was a much bigger threat than Iranains or the asshole Taliban terrorists could ever pose to us. One was a nuclear super power and we were in a Cold War with the USSR one of the most sophisticated militaries ever seen. The other we face today are a bunch of rag tag idiot thugs with box cutters and IEDs...this should be a winnable war.
However his worship GW has been doing his best to fuck it all up.
An illegal drug trade in Afghanistan now supplies them with terrorist funding for years to come
I also do not get why some people are getting freaked out over Iran, they might surprise us and blow a nuke in the next 12 months but they don't have much going for them. They have limited military spending, they have run out of spare parts for their F-14 Tomcats and their missile program is absolute bunk. Their Shihab missile - basically a rip off on the design of an old NorthKorean LongDonger-1 or whatever its called has a very limited range. The Iranian Shihab has a range of about 1,200 miles which means they could hit Yemen or Turkey...they certainly won't be able to hit us for a long time to come.
I admit there's a chance one of the Islamics might want to do something kamikaze since throughout parts their culture the concept of M.A.D doesn't seem to deter them like it did the Ruskies. M.A.D doesn't really scare a people who support martyrdom and worship death more than life.
If the Iranians continue doing something we don't like we can try the carrot and stick diplomacy method
or we can try bombing their nuke facilities back to the stoneage like Israel's Operation Opera on Saddam.
I certainly would not want to bank it all on some big fat Star Wars contract for the corporate pigs in Honeywell and Lockheed Mart's sales team.

A crappy over priced missile shield which only works 50% of the time
As for smuggling a nuclear weapon across the border?
Quite possible.
But very unlikely.
You don't spend years of work and billions of dollars building a nuclear weapon...then entrust it to three guys in a pickup.
Really?
Then what the hell do you call these things?
Russia under intense political pressure from the United States admitted it lost over 30 of these things since the break up of the USSR.
I find non-proliferation, border security, better state policing and increase of funding for local police to be far more beneficial than some big multi billion dollar Star Wars fantasy from some TomClancy movie.
I'm just wondering why you are so keen on facing down the Russians and Chinese.
We tried that crap in the 70s and 80s, it was dumb so we both backed off.
Are you one of these rightist Evangelical nuts who prays for the days of Armageddon every night?
