Sunday, March 20, 2011

What Does U.S. Air Power Actually Do?

[Photo: USAF]

What U.S. Air Power Actually Does -- CBS

Why we need a new lexicon to describe air power in the age of the war on terror

When men first made war in the air, the imagery that accompanied them was of knights jousting in the sky. Just check out movies like Wings, which won the first Oscar for Best Picture in 1927 (or any Peanuts cartoon in which Snoopy takes on the Red Baron in a literal "dogfight"). As late as 1986, five years after two American F-14s shot down two Soviet jets flown by Libyan pilots over the Mediterranean's Gulf of Sidra, it was still possible to make the movie Top Gun. In it, Tom Cruise played "Maverick," a U.S. Naval aviator triumphantly involved in a similar incident. (He shoots down three MiGs.)

Read more ....

My Comment: A cynic's view of U.S. air power .... but one that is sobering and (probably) closer to the truth than what some in the Air Force may wish to admit.

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