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  1. What if Japan avoided attacking Pearl Harbour?

    The Japanese also hit the U.S. while they had a reasonable chance of success. They had read the Two Oceans Navy Act and were able to do the math as far as the changes coming. As an example between 1921 and the end of WW II the Japanese commissioned two battleships (granted they were BIG BB)...
  2. Could the Soviet Navy have closed the Atlantic in a 1986 war with NATO?

    Possibly. Again it is a matter of how far NATO could push into what the Soviets saw as their critical buffer zone before the Kremlin laid down their marker Large enough, and secure enough to be a credible threat. 18 S3 IRBM (1.3mT warheads) with the range to hit any target in European Russia...
  3. What if the USA responded to every war crime and geneva violation?

    Without getting into the political or philosophic issues involving this sort of scenario, lets look at the practical. This would require the U.S. to intervene militarily In the USSR during any number of ethnic cleansing efforts and acts of aggression, up to and including Afghanistan In the...
  4. Could the Soviet Navy have closed the Atlantic in a 1986 war with NATO?

    Close it to all shipping? No. To transports and oil tankers? Not 100%. The thing is that they didn't NEED 100% closure. They needed to cut off effective heavy reinforcement and fuel for around two months, maybe less. Long term there is little doubt that the RN and USN would have swept the seas...
  5. If you could change one event in history pre 1900

    I won't even address the flaws in this idea. Advocating mass murder like this is utterly unacceptable here. Kicked for a week. (BTW: be happy, up until a couple weeks ago, when the policy was clarified, I would have Banned you for this crap).
  6. Bring back Privateers

    Things changed several times during the Age of Sail, the most important be the Paris Declaration Respecting Maritime Law of 1856. The U.S. was one of the few countries not to sign it due to disagreement regarding neutral shipping (ironically, had the U.S. signed on, the British, and the RN...
  7. Bring back Privateers

    Which, of course, is why the system has long since failed.
  8. Bring back Privateers

    Depends on the country where they are operating. In Iraq U.S. PMC were, at one point, covered under the U.S. Status on Forces agreements. While that was in place they were carrying 40mm grenade launchers and gpmc, along with RPG. After a couple nasty incidents the Iraqi government pulled that...
  9. Bring back Privateers

    Even that requires a good deal of finesse. There were some issues back when the Somali pirate crisis started to blow up with shipping lines loading up some bully boys without following all the rules. One of the biggest issues is armament. Different countries gun control regulations have to be...
  10. Bring back Privateers

    You are going to need to overturn the 1958 Convention on the High Seas (Article 15) and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (Article 101). They contain the identical wording: (a) any illegal acts of violence or detention, or any act of depredation, committed for private ends by the crew or...
  11. How likely is the use of Soviet bioweapons in a full exchange?

    That is exactly how a terrorist organization would do things. Most of them are either death cults or religious zealots who actually believe that THEIR God will protect them while letting everyone else die (or, like Da'esh, they are both). The question you asked, however, is about a full...
  12. How likely is the use of Soviet bioweapons in a full exchange?

    You are, of course, correct for ordinary, naturally occurring wild anthrax. Weaponization can address many of the issues that any potential agent poses. While not perfect, it really doesn't have to be. The use of bio-weapons ties very closely to the use of some sort of "doomsday" system. The...
  13. How likely is the use of Soviet bioweapons in a full exchange?

    Not really. Perfect distribution in perfect conditions and it could be done with around 10 grams, maybe less. In perfect conditions you need to infect a few people. Full stop. A weaponized disease will run into zero natural immunity among the population, making transmission a virtual...
  14. How likely is the use of Soviet bioweapons in a full exchange?

    Because you are only going to hit cities and counterforce targets. Much of the enemy's population and recovery capacity is outside the direct impact zones. Biological agents have the advantage of using the surviving refugees as a delivery system.
  15. How likely is the use of Soviet bioweapons in a full exchange?

    IRBM/ICBM distribution of bio-weapons is actually very doable. Some materials can be distributed in the form of spores (anthrax is probably the best known agent in this regard), other viruses and bacterial can be released in the form of weaponized dust via bomblet. While an SS-18 is less...
  16. How likely is the use of Soviet bioweapons in a full exchange?

    In a full exchange a lot depends on exactly how much of the Soviet's "survivable nuclear war" BS was propaganda and how much was believed by the decision makers. If they actually bought into it the intentional use of bio-weapons is fairly low, say below 20%. If they didn't believe that they (the...
  17. The M-BAM Main Thread

    Hate to tell you, but it is well on the way to being irretrievably broken. Posts have been reported. I strongly advise everyone to play nice.
  18. Which underrated countries you most wish had pulled a Meiji?

    Possibly. The second paragraph was a late addition to the post. As you note, it actually doesn't matter.
  19. Which underrated countries you most wish had pulled a Meiji?

    Probably would have been a good idea to mention that up front. The way it was written certainly doesn't seem to be limited tp a single group in a small portion of Southern Africa.
  20. Which underrated countries you most wish had pulled a Meiji?

    Frog Worshipper refers to the Alt-right's adoption of of the Pepe the Frog character as a symbol and very popular meme. It is a classic example of how a subset of a movement with evil intent can corrupt a silly image and weaponize it.
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