This is going down a road better traveled in this thread.
I don't exactly disagree with you Comrade LazarX, but the Western drive for cheap oil, the whole Cold War chess game, etc., etc. didn't inspire the growth of the Zionist movement in the shtetls and ghettoes of Russia and Poland.
Although I'm still not sold on Comrade Inaros's theory, either. It's true, there were apparently more than a few philo-Semitic Christian somethingorotherists running around the British empire and one of them, some dude or other, read Herzl's Der Judenraat in Austria or something and arranged for TH to get a meeting with the Kaiser to ask him to ask the Sultan to maybe give Palestine to the Jews. (I've been reading a few wikipedia pages.)
But I still think that "Jewish Zionism" was a largely secular movement. Sure, it bases its claim to Israel on The Bible or whatever they call it, but my understanding was that the real hardcore religious Jews--such as the Hasidim, and a bunch that were actually living in Palestine at the time--were opposed to the establishment of a Jewish state because it violated central tenets of their belief. Or something.
Anyway, yes, it was Jewish, but I always thought Zionism was pretty much a secular nationalist movement
Learn your basic history.. if you want to see a root cause for major historical events it's always economics. Rhetoric with other themes may be used for propaganda purposes, but it always comes down resources and wealth. The United States and France wanted Vietnam for the tungsten found there, before oil was a factor,
Was/is tungesten of some supreme military importance? See,s an awful lot to spend on it , when you could just buy it.
Tungsten is used by the military (and by commercial products too). In some alloys, it makes for a very efficient conductor, but it's a lot cheaper than gold, making it much more cost effective.
It's also one of the heaviest metals available, with a similar density to uranium. They used to use depleted uranium for certain types of ammunition and artillery, but have switched to tungsten as it's both cheaper and safer. Uranium, if it's thin enough, can actually catch fire just by being exposed to air, not something you always want in your ammunition. The high density makes it ideal for armor piercing rounds and it's high melting point make it a great metal for rocket nozzles.
The biggest producer of tungsten is China, so I could see it impacting industrial motivations for controlling Vietnam.
Der Judenraat
Woops. Der Judenstaat.
An unfortunate and entirely unintentional slip.
Tungsten is used by the military (and by commercial products too). In some alloys, it makes for a very efficient conductor, but it's a lot cheaper than gold, making it much more cost effective.
It's also one of the heaviest metals available, with a similar density to uranium. They used to use depleted uranium for certain types of ammunition and artillery, but have switched to tungsten as it's both cheaper and safer. Uranium, if it's thin enough, can actually catch fire just by being exposed to air, not something you always want in your ammunition. The high density makes it ideal for armor piercing rounds and it's high melting point make it a great metal for rocket nozzles.
The biggest producer of tungsten is China, so I could see it impacting industrial motivations for controlling Vietnam.
Wow. The more you know...
I don't exactly disagree with you Comrade LazarX, but the Western drive for cheap oil, the whole Cold War chess game, etc., etc. didn't inspire the growth of the Zionist movement in the shtetls and ghettoes of Russia and Poland.
I'm not talking about the Zionist movement. I was talking about the modern state of Israel, which bears resemblence only in name to the goal of Zionist ideals. The point I'm making is that the Zionists would have remained Palestinean style terrorists save for the fact that the United States and Britain decided that a client state would be very useful in Palestine.
Without that motive, there would be no modern state of Israel.
Oh, I missed this 4 hours and 26 minutes ago!
But anyway, yes, I realize you two are talking about different things. That's kind of what I'm saying.
Wow. The more you know...Tungsten is used by the military (and by commercial products too). In some alloys, it makes for a very efficient conductor, but it's a lot cheaper than gold, making it much more cost effective.
It's also one of the heaviest metals available, with a similar density to uranium. They used to use depleted uranium for certain types of ammunition and artillery, but have switched to tungsten as it's both cheaper and safer. Uranium, if it's thin enough, can actually catch fire just by being exposed to air, not something you always want in your ammunition. The high density makes it ideal for armor piercing rounds and it's high melting point make it a great metal for rocket nozzles.
The biggest producer of tungsten is China, so I could see it impacting industrial motivations for controlling Vietnam.
I looked some of that up, but some of it I knew. On navy ships they one of the anti-missile systems is called the CIWS, basically an automated machine gun that tries to shoot down incoming missiles. They have to use really dense metal because of the higher kinetic energy, you want to do as much possible damage to the missile to break it apart, explode it or change it's course. They used to use depleted uranium, but switched primarily to tungsten a while ago, I think early or mid 90's.
The system is kind of neat, there are two radar units mounted on the gun, one for detecting targets and the other for aiming. The aiming radar antenna is sensitive enough that it can actually track the rounds being fired and 'walk' them to the target. The put out something like 60 rounds per second and have an effective range of over a mile.
About 10 years ago, they made it mandatory to know this kind of stuff about the ship you were on for E-5 and above.
And that, at least as far as this internet conversation goes, needs to be proven. You can tell me to go read the basic history if you like, but I'm not going to go read Herzl or Jabotinsky or Weizmann or any of those other dudes.
You could, though, mention what you've already been reading.
Actually, you needed to know that stuff when you were getting your warfare pin which used to be after you got all your basic qualifications done. Stuff like serving on the fire party (shipboard fire fighting), all the different quarterdeck watches (Messenger of the watch, Petty Officer of the Watch), and Ship-Self Defense Force (for when marines weren't on board/auxillary to the Master-of-Arms in case of emergencies). Once they made the pins mandatory, knowing that stuff went out the window. I've seen guys right of boot camp and "A"-school get their pins within a week of reporting to the ship and not be able to tell you anything about the ship.
I got mine around the same time the requirement was implemented (during deployment in 2001). I was on the USS Carl Vinson, but seriously, on an aircraft carrier that knowledge was useless. It was all trivia. It was good if you were giving someone a tour of the boat, but I couldn't operate equipment in the CIC or engineering.
I thought that the mandatory requirement was a bad idea and it sounds like you've confirmed it. The surface/air pins really weren't a big deal. They were sprinkles on a donut, they look pretty, but don't actually change the flavor at all.
As for the christian movement, I don't think that was the main impetus behind the formation of Israel, but it has been a motivating factor behind several American political movements for supporting Israel.
Anyway, let's get back on topic. Kind of.
Here's a series of articles for discussion:
FBI Hatches Another Terror Scare
Austin Police Infiltrated Occupy Austin
Deploying Informants--FBI Stings Muslims
I'm sorry, crazy right-wingers, but I am not as informed about US plots to frame, imprison and assassinate you guys. I'm sure Comrade Thorn or somebody could fill in some blanks.
The left doesn't claim Randy Weaver at all. :)
He's the only example of a crazy right-winger being entrapped in the whole US Gov't-concoct-a-terror-plot-smash-dissidents machine that I, a crazy left-winger, can think of.
The feds might frame up leties on 4-to-1 ratio with rightists, but I don't know, hence the apology.
Der JudenraatWoops. Der Judenstaat.
An unfortunate and entirely unintentional slip.
I was waiting for someone to (erroneously) scream antisemitism by accusing you of making a tongue-in-cheek aphoristic remark. Heh.
Although, honestly, my opinion of Israel is very low.
** spoiler omitted **
You do it in the streets.
Setup, they are like that every time. Some blackflag operative secret agent starts s@@%-talking blacks, asspunders , current president whatever. Eventually this feeble fallguy will manage a "yeah".
At that point they are told something needs to be done, and they are equipped with guns and plans handed out by the agents.
As they finish up, the raid comes in and arrests the fallguy.
And voila, it looks like there was a conspiracy and assassination planned that only the brave spies managed to uncover.
Its always the dumbest f$+#s that fall for it, and allow these previously unknown people to hand him all the guns and whatnot.
