But the days of carpet bombing, at least for the US, are over.

Better tell someone in the military to stop stockpiling cluster bombs then. I don’t think they got the memo.

But, y’know, fighting a network enemy, penetrating secretive organizations, gaining trust of local populations, delivering aid, post-conflict rebuilding, destroying violent elements that hide within local populations, inevitable propaganda campaigns, gathering humint, supporting some local institutions and subverting others - that’s what militaries have to do.

All those cheesy hollywood movies like Firefox, and endless Discovey Channel specials, built around the worship of high-tech killing machines…that ain’t a big share real-world military action.

Sexy space lady? I bet her parents had to tie a pork chop around her neck to get the family dog to play with her.
The theme song for Seoul Glow is completely annoying. Replace it with black-board nail gnashing and it would be an improvement.

Ok, well what do you mean by “do”? If you mean just the traditional idea of military combat, then I’m sorry I think technology-wise the US has the world beat, hands down. That is not to say that other countries out there do not have good militaries. The British, Germans, Russians, Australians, Canadians and even the French (stop laughing) all have outstanding, well-equiped (the Russians slightly less so in this case, but that is quickly changing) and well-trained militaries. The Chinese and the Indians also have very good militaries as well, as do the South Koreans and the Japanese (contrary to its “peace consitution, Japan has one of the most modern-militaries in the world). However, when it comes to technical superiority, the US has them beat, hands down. Gulf War I scared the hell out of the various militaries of the world, particularly the Chinese as they were already thinking of themselves as a soon-to-be superpower, in that they saw the US quite effectively using smart munitions, laser-guided munitions, stealth technology, advancements in armor, etc.

However, this is not to say that this technology is perfect, nothing is. The US still makes (quite a few) mistakes when it launches military operations. But the days of carpet bombing, at least for the US, are over. The Chinese have been increasing their defense spending every year for the last 15 years or so. Their military has grown in leaps and bounds, yet for all this improvement China still lacks the amphibious ability required to successfully invade Taiwan, which geographically is not that far off its shore.

Having military power and having power projection are two totally different things. China and India have military power, but no real power projection (yet). When it comes to power projection, the US is way ahead of the curve, although there are a few countries who also have this capability, but none to the extent of the US.

One last thing to keep in mind, advancement in technology still has not improved any country’s ability to fight a guerilla conflict, whether it be an urban or terrain guerilla conflict. Thus, the current quagmire that is Iraq. You win a guerilla conflict by either winning the hearts and minds, or through a policy of total attrition (which usually ends up turning into war crimes). The US tried attrition in Vietnam and lost. Whether the US tried total attrition is still being debated. So if it will be a traditional head-on military fight, I think the US and their technology is going to win 9 times out of 10. Guerilla conflict, that is a different story.

As for nation building, militaries do a terrible job of nation building, ex. Somalia, Iraq, etc. If this is what you mean by “what militaries actually have to do” then you are right, the US (as well as other militaries) sucks at this.

Is Korea aiming to build a manned space program or are they just hoping for payload launching capabilities? If the former, then it’s pretty ambitious, especially in terms of cost, if the latter then one wonders why they need to send anyone up into space for it.

One of the aims of the mission is undoubtedly to promote science in Korea. Which is all good. USD30 million would fund a pretty good university science department for a few years. You could even set up a prize fund to rival the Nobel Prize for Physics. Something like the Templeton prize might be appropriate.

Anyway, good luck to her. Hopefully all goes well and she comes back safely to tell us all about it.

But in terms of what militaries really have to do these days, what is it that you think makes the US so superior?

And if you really want to talk about “being able to do certain kinds of technology”, the US and the Soviets put people in space 50 years ago, China did it 5 years ago. So those who make the argument that the Chinese military will overtake the US in the near future need to see a doctor, because they have a brain cloud.