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Remulak: Jun 8, 2001; The four most over-rated things in life are champagne, lobster, anal sex and picnics. Oh, and that stupid children's book 'The Little Prince,' ugh.

ganglysumbia posted:

I have a few Napoleon questions...

Being bogged down in Spain, in poor health and well aware of the logistics involved, why did he go into Russia?

Because his entire carreer was based on staying ahead of bad publicity. He'd have some success, in Egypt, Spain, or whatever, then on to the next thing before be got bogged down.

# ¿ Sep 3, 2011 03:59

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# ¿ May 21, 2013 22:08

Remulak: Jun 8, 2001; The four most over-rated things in life are champagne, lobster, anal sex and picnics. Oh, and that stupid children's book 'The Little Prince,' ugh.

My father-in-law had his tank destroyed from under him in the Bulge and the Nazis made a really good attempt at machine gunning the crew in the wreckage of the tank.

# ¿ Sep 5, 2011 13:26

Remulak: Jun 8, 2001; The four most over-rated things in life are champagne, lobster, anal sex and picnics. Oh, and that stupid children's book 'The Little Prince,' ugh.

Amused to Death posted:

His tactical victories in North Africa too were pretty impressive given the limited amount of resources he had.

Not really, given that one of these resources was constant field updates from an American attaché:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonner_Fellers

# ¿ Sep 21, 2011 22:56

Remulak: Jun 8, 2001; The four most over-rated things in life are champagne, lobster, anal sex and picnics. Oh, and that stupid children's book 'The Little Prince,' ugh.

A carrier is an incredible tool for anything up to a real war with someone like Russia or China, at which point it becomes a very expensive floating coffin. With satellites and even non-nuclear ballistic missiles there's no place for a carrier to hide and no real defense.

China's developed a antiship ballistic missle, the DF-21 9http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DF-21) just for this reason. It's as accurate as a cruise missile, but comes in from above way to fast for an Aegis to stop it (unlike a cruise missile).

# ¿ Oct 6, 2011 19:14

Remulak: Jun 8, 2001; The four most over-rated things in life are champagne, lobster, anal sex and picnics. Oh, and that stupid children's book 'The Little Prince,' ugh.

Oxford Comma posted:

The US would be able to outproduce the Soviet Union, as well as (eventually) manufacture more atomic bombs.

Not until the Ruskies were at least to Paris.

# ¿ Oct 11, 2011 17:12

Remulak: Jun 8, 2001; The four most over-rated things in life are champagne, lobster, anal sex and picnics. Oh, and that stupid children's book 'The Little Prince,' ugh.

Let's not forget that the fall of (western) Rome took centuries. Most changes during any one person's lifetime would be a series of vaguely connected events, without the overriding 'fall' narrative.

# ¿ Nov 3, 2011 23:36

Remulak: Jun 8, 2001; The four most over-rated things in life are champagne, lobster, anal sex and picnics. Oh, and that stupid children's book 'The Little Prince,' ugh.

With all the WWI chat let's not forget that the great Paul Fussell passed away last week. The Great War and Modern Memory is an amazing look about how deeply the horror of WWI changed everything in art, literature, and culture.

His own reflections on his service in WWII, Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War made every other memoir seem shallow and unreflective.

# ¿ May 29, 2012 13:47

Remulak: Jun 8, 2001; The four most over-rated things in life are champagne, lobster, anal sex and picnics. Oh, and that stupid children's book 'The Little Prince,' ugh.

Nenonen posted:

...
My pamphlet would be titled "The only way to win is not to play".

And more generations would live and die in chains as things were "worked out politically". Sounds even worse than the ACW to me.

Lincoln was right, the rich slave owners that controlled the South would not stop until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword.

# ¿ Jun 25, 2012 20:12

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# ¿ May 21, 2013 22:08

Remulak: Jun 8, 2001; The four most over-rated things in life are champagne, lobster, anal sex and picnics. Oh, and that stupid children's book 'The Little Prince,' ugh.

SeanBeansShako posted:

Can somebody walk me through the brief history and science the detonation of bursting AA shells? I've always wondered how it came to being and always worked.

Or did they always work?

I can't speak to before (or after) WWII, but I read a lot about this at one point years ago.

If I recall correctly, during the course of the war the brits switched from fuses that were activated by the air pressure of the travel (through a tube) to timers that were activated air pressure to ground-sensing radar.

# ¿ Aug 2, 2012 01:53

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask / Tell > Ask me about Military History!