B-2’s flyovers are a nonstealthy form of PR - disturbing article

[proud2BlibKansan]

B-2’s flyovers are a nonstealthy form of PR
By SCOTT CANON
The Kansas City Star

For a plane made to be virtually invisible, the B-2 stealth bomber gets seen quite a bit.

At a Yankees-Red Sox game, over Arrowhead Stadium, above Pasadena’s Rose Parade, in the busy skies of the Muskegon Air Fair.

In fact, once or twice a month the $2-billion-plus behemoth passes over as many as five air shows or other gatherings so civilians can tilt their necks back and drop their jaws.

Air Force officials call the high-profile flights training missions adapted for the admiration of taxpayers and intimidation of potential enemies.

Are they afraid some kids at the ball games and Rose Parade are considering joining al qaeda when they grow up?

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Analysts split over the value of B-2 flyovers.

“Just advertising for the Air Force,” said James Stevenson, an aviation author.

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“It’s not perfect,” Dolman said. “But maybe it’s better than going from point Charlie to point Victor at the same old training center where they’ve fired on the same point a million times before.”

So they are flying over stadiums full of fans to PRACTICE firing??

http://www.kansascity.com/105/story/210469.html

This article was on the front page of my local paper today. I have read it several times and it really disturbs me. :scared:

[TwilightGardener]

1. I'm an Air Force wife--I love the flyovers. I love the planes.

I know that's not PC on DU, but it's the truth. I think they're cool.

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. I am not criticizing the flyovers

Read the article and the comments made by the military people. THAT is what is disturbing to me.

[UnyieldingHierophant]

14. Booooo B-2s....Boooo Air Force....

is the correct response here

:freak:

[kenny blankenship]

2. Also advertising for a hideously expensive weapons system we never really needed

You wouldn't get rid of the B-2 now would you? Think of all the times you saw it swoop expensively over sports events and parades to celebrate sports events. Remember how your chest swelled with pride as you beheld its million dollar contrails and thought I gave up health insurance for every American child for this magnificent useless spectacle! Banish the B-2? Banish all the world!

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. Oh yeah, there's that too

We spend a sinful amount of money on these planes.

[IChing]

5. The airforce can make it to a stadium but couldn't catch the 911 planes

Your tax dollars at work.

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. Where I live is 50 miles from the base where they house these bombers

and they fly overhead a lot. They are HUGE. One of my first thoughts on 9/11 was where are these bombers, are they even being used to try to intercept these planes??

[muriel_volestrangler]

13. An American Football commentator on British TV said

(he's an American himself, living in Britain): "How come the air force can time a stadium flyover to the second to coincide with the end of the national anthem, but they can't avoid bombing weddings?"

I love him. He's a good commentator, but he also has great asides - he took the piss mercilessly out of Rush Limbaugh over the Donovan McNabb affair, and always calls Reggie Bush "the Bush you can support".

There's no way in hell he'd be allowed to say it all on American TV, but on a small British channel in the middle of the night, no-one cares.

[Ezlivin]

6. The thoroughgoing fetishization of technology designed to kill

I'm a pilot and I love high tech aircraft, but it's real easy to forget that every single one of these "state-of-the-art" aircraft is designed to kill human beings en masse.

I've gone to my fair share of air shows and it's instructive to think of the dichotomy between the groups of people experiencing these aircraft. The first group is us—ordinary Americans—who stand under the carved sky with our mouths agape, "oohing" and "aahing" as the pilots sweep by. The second group either never hears the aircraft approach but experience the destructive power or they cower in fear waiting for it.

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. One day at our weekly anti-war rally,

a lady walked up to us and yelled "My husband is an air force pilot stationed at Whitman (that's the base where they house these bombers) and I am very proud of what he is doing to support his country!!"

So one of the people in our group said "Oh he gets up every morning, flies halfway around the world, drops bombs on people who have done NOTHING to this country, and he is home in time for dinner! Yes, you should be PROUD of that!"

The lady just froze and the look on her face was priceless. I don't think she had ever thought of it that way before.

[Kolesar]

10. sounds like the script to M*A*S*H ... eom

[Kolesar]

9. The Cleveland "Peace" Show

http://observer.case.edu/Archives/Volume_39/Issue_2/Story_926/

[B3Nut]

12. I always cogitated over that thought myself

I love taking photographs at airshows, and especially enjoy the static displays in morning and evening light where I can "work" the subjects before or after the crowds have come/gone. Some of those military aircraft are stunning as objets d'art, especially the F-16 which is just a gorgeous machine, I've made lots of photographs of them. It's a bit challenging to reconcile the beauty and impressive technology (signifying a great human acheivement) with their primary function as a bringer of death. I'm not so naive as to think such things are never necessary, some times they sadly are due to the need to be protected from more egregious examples of human stupidity and violence, but it is nonetheless sobering to contemplate. And I certainly don't think our resources are being used well or properly at all in the current conflict, and believe the lives of the men and women who wear our country's uniform are being callously and unnecessarily endangered.

I'm all for a strong and advanced military, but it must be used well and for truly legitimate reasons and not stretched to the breaking point or used for the benefit of big business as Shrub, Inc. has so unforgivably done in Iraq. I'd love to see a day when such things are no longer necessary, but I'm either realistic or cynical enough to realize that will never happen in my lifetime. I'd love to be proven wrong, that would make me exceedingly happy, but I'm afraid I won't be. :(

Todd in Cheesecurdistan

[Nostradammit]

11. And yet it can't do jack against 19 guys w/boxcutters

All hail the mighty American Penis.

Biggest Dick in the World.


Growing up in the Air Force I used to think all that stuff was cool until it dawned on me that their main function is to drop bombs on people. And we've seen how indiscriminate the bombs can be.

Go Team!!!