B-2's return home to Missouri... to a waiting crowd.

[WarGamer]

Cool stuff... my son was an ammo trooper on B-1B lines... much respect for the heavies.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/video-iran-b2-bombers-return-missouri/

KNOB NOSTER, Mo. (AP) — The B-2 stealth bombers that dropped massive bunker-buster bombs on Iranian nuclear facilities began returning to their U.S. base in Missouri on Sunday.

An Associated Press journalist watched on a clear but windy afternoon as seven of the B-2 Spirit bombers came in for landing at Whiteman Air Force Base. The base, about 73 miles (117 kilometers) southeast of Kansas City, is home to the 509th Bomb Wing, the only U.S. military unit that operates the B-2 Spirit bombers.

The first group of four of the stealth aircraft did a loop around the base before approaching a runway from the north, while a final group of three arrived within 10 minutes.

[BannonsLiver]

1. But what about Mars? He wasn't smiling this time?

[Celerity]

3. ...

[WarGamer]

37. I've *appreciated War since I was 11 years old, checking out library books...

I still appreciate the machines of war and the wars and battles of old...

But I don't think modern day wars are necessary. ESPECIALLY not in the neocon sense of modern war... wars of geopolitics.

[Greg_In_SF]

11. I was going to

say they are super bad ass, but majestic technological marvels works too

[snowybirdie]

4. Saw these in Mo once

A grandson was in AF providing security at Whitman. While visiting him we came close. So impressed. Too bad Orange Menace doesn't appreciate our Military.

[W_HAMILTON]

5. """anti-war consistently"""

[BannonsLiver]

38. They're anti war...only when it comes to Ukraine defending itself, apparently.

[Ping Tung]

6. Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men. Martin Luther King

The means by which we live have outdistanced the ends for which we live. Our scientific power
has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.
Martin Luther King

[Beringia]

9. Thich Nhat Hanh on nonviolence

Martin Luther King, Thich Nhat Hanh and Adam Clayton Powell a Baptist pastor and politician

Prior to June 1965, Dr. King had occasionally expressed concern about the war in Vietnam, but he had done so publicly only in a tentative and extremely cautious manner. King was acutely aware of the risk that direct criticism of President Lyndon Johnson on his Vietnam policy risked jeopardizing the strong and critically important relationship he had developed with President Johnson in support of his civil rights efforts. However, various factors began to shift Dr. King’s understanding of the vast human suffering perpetrated in Vietnam and, as a result, his opposition to the war slowly began to intensify, eventually leading to an unequivocal moral condemnation of U.S. war policy, and a fundamental break in his relationship with Johnson.

Thich Nhat Hanh, an immensely courageous Buddhist monk from Vietnam, played an important role in educating Dr. King about the reality of the war from a Vietnamese perspective and inspiring King’s transformation into a national leader in the anti-war movement.

https://usfblogs.usfca.edu/fierce-urgency/2021/10/12/thich-nhat-hanh-and-dr-martin-luther-king-jr-spiritual-brothers-partners-in-nonviolence/

[Ping Tung]

25. Thank you.

[Igel]

15. Very like what teachers at my school started saying a decade back.

We have smart phones but dumb students.

Oddly, guided missiles have yet to come close to the death tolls of the wars before guided missiles (except in the sense that a "rock" or "bullet" is a missile).

And even those wars have let to come to the level of ideological governments' mass murder of their populations, whether the "People's Republic of China," Nazi Germany,'s 13 million, or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic under Stalin with its 21 million. Even the "agrarian reformer" (to borrow a phrase) Pol Pot was pretty impressive for a small little country (but not like WWII, for sure).

[Brother Buzz]

8. Curious side note: The Enola Gay was part of the 509th

The 509th Composite Group, born in secrecy Dec. 17, 1944, was created for the sole purpose of delivering the world’s first nuclear weapon.

[Brother Buzz]

12. I knew of the USS Indianapolis' role, but curiously , I may be the only person

That never saw the fifty year old film, Jaws

Thanks for that nugget.

[marybourg]

13. No, you're not the only one.

[Brother Buzz]

17. There's a boatload of stories surfacing during the 50th anniversary

One interesting one how Steven Spielberg created the heightened suspense by accident because of a prop malfunction. Seems the shark’s appearance was delayed because it wasn’t doing what it was supposed to do, and it was driving Spielberg crazy until one of his crew pointed out, correctly, it’s absence was creating suspense.

[Dave says]

16. My brother was an avid surfer

He wouldn’t go back in the water for a year.

A side note: we. Saw sharks all the time. 12 foot Tigers and Hammerheads, and lots of sand sharks. They cruised just outside the surf line. (Rarely saw Tigers, but Hammerheads were pretty common.)

[Emile]

18. How much did this bombing cost the US taxpayers?

[Emile]

20. The only time Republicans worry about the debt

is during Democratic administrations.

[TommyT139]

22. Whatever's left of our souls.

[purple_haze]

27. Not as much as all-out war would have

[Emile]

30. You saying that was the only option?

[purple_haze]

32. When did I say that?

[Emile]

33. Post 27

You said, not as much as all-out war would have.

If I misunderstood you, what does that mean?

[purple_haze]

34. Well

It means that an all-out protracted war would have cost infinitely more than flight time and maintenance for 125 airplanes at 40-48 hours flight time, fuel, crews, and 420 tons of deep penetrator ordinance.

[Emile]

35. Why would we have an-all out protracted war?

[purple_haze]

36. I'm certainly hoping that we don't

But the histrionics on all sides seem to believe that's where we're headed

[B.See]

23. Is it just me, or did I miss the

"waiting crowd."

I looked at the CBS video clip and read the article, and though there was a lot of Trump hype and detailed jargon about this unprovoked attack upon a sovereign nation, the only crowd seen or mentioned in all of it was a brief clip of protesting Iranians.

[B.See]

28. I'm not trying to "poo pop" it...

or rather, pooh pooh it.

You mentioned waiting crowds in you title, so that's what I was looking for in your links.

[B.See]

31. Ok. You didn't create the thread.

Still, the linked information didn't show the aforementioned crowds.

And there ARE, perhaps, a few of us, who are not so inclined to fall in behind this airstrike of Trump's, NOT to the discredit of our service members, called upon to carry out the order.

I'm old enough to remember the last time we were asked to fall in line behind such an action (in Iraq) one that turned out to be founded upon A LIE.

Like I said in another thread. We are being played as pawns, in somebody ELSE'S power grab.

sots.

[purple_haze]

26. God bless our troops

God bless those crews and everybody on the ground who supports them. And especially God bless their families.