Do these hoverbots incorporate a sound system capable of broadcasting the "The Flight of the Valkyries" to everyone in a 3 mile radius?

You're way off the mark there Alan - it's all about ensuring that the Iraqis (not the Iraquios, they have already been freedom-ised*) are free to follow the 'American Way' (tm), which mainly involves selling anything they have lying around to the Americans, say oil or maybe err sand?

As for the Afghanistanians I suspect that some market research found out that Americans import a large amount of Heroin, so they thought that they would freedomise* that resource as well.

Of course I could be wrong, after all the same could be said of our involvement in Northern Ireland, since that was great for teaching urban warfare as well as 'hearts and minds' practice.

ttfn

*For the Americans please feel free to replace the 's' with a 'z'

PH 'cos I'd like to have zex with her.

May I suggest they use them to fly past the Taliban with large posters of naked women? That should disorientate them...

.... is that all the Iraqis have signed NDA's when they agreed to the be shot by equipment in it's beta test phase.

(Sorry we blew up your family we'll get that fixed with the next patch).

The yanks still have the money for new toys. In a few years time, they may only have some ageing trident missiles and nukes to throw at the Barbarians.

I love the way Americans are all supposed to have Freedom, and should fight to bring freedom to the rest of the world.

I have yet to discover what Americans are free to do that the rest of the world isn't, apart perhaps from f**king it up.

American Freedom = ?

Glastroika (A word I made up that sounds good in speeches) = ?

American Freedom = Glastroika

Let's go fight to bring Glastroika to the rest of the world.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/09/land_warrior_fcs_mav_hookup/

;)

stuff and nonsense: http://www.eupeople.net/forum

As the war in Iraq and Afghanistan drag on new technology has the time to be tested in a realistic field. This was also seen in the Viet Nam conflict. In between wars new technologies are developed and tested in secret and finally make it to the battlefield all at once. It takes time to implement suggestions for more effective methodologies, tactics, and equipment from lessons learned in battle. If the war goes on, the enemy will also adapt their tactics and make use of technology which creates a vicious circle or a marketing hey-day depending on your outlook.

...laughing all the way to the bank. Millions and billions spent on this crap which does nothing to reduce casualties. Human intelligence gathering would be 10000% more cost effective but then you'd have to mix with the natives instead of sitting in highly protected and privileged compounds.

Paris cos even she could work that out.

@secretgeek; sorry about that old chum, it was waiting to be said

@anyone else; yes oil and power are part of it and a big part too but best way to test all this new gear is in the field and they test and test; the US Military has a long history of this...I think they started it in modern times with a brand new technological development tested on certain Japanese cities?

Of course most of the major arms dealers are American owned so, getting some PR and free advertising helps things along

I know exactly what these "American Freedoms" Anonymous Coward mentioned consist of:

Most obvious is the freedom to force all other countries to bend the knee to the US brand of run-away capitalism.

They also have the freedom to bring "democracy" to other countries. I'm putting "democracy" in inverted commas because if you don't vote for the US-backed puppet at the first elections then you and your entire family will be killed when a bomb "accidentally" falls on your village.

...and isn't it ironic that they go on and on about democracy when they don't actually live in a democracy, they live in a republic! Oh dear, I may have insulted the 'merkins, I better get my coat and leave quickly before their flying spies, cluster bombs and/or friendly fire turn me into a smoking crater.

If you actually meant the Iraquois Indians, you are way off the block. Mostly French, Brit, and, to some extent, Dutch settlers started the ball rolling with a pacification and absorption campaign.

As for your point about heroin trade, many millions of dollars are being spent to erradicate poppy cultivation. Unfortunately heroin production is very profitable. And most of the finished product from Afghanistan seems to end up in Europe or Asia. Lately, however, heroin use in the US has increased, but is probably supplied mostly from South/Central America.