List Of Top Military Countries

Discussion in 'Latest US & World News' started by Jeannette, Aug 6, 2019.

  1. Iranian Monitor

    Iranian Monitor Well-Known Member

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    I forgot to mention this before, but one place that foreigners learn about Iran's aircraft is through the annual Kish Air Show, held in Iran. For those Americans here who have an interest in the F-14 aircraft, made popular in the movie "Top Gun", this report might be of some interest as well.

    https://theaviationist.com/2018/12/...ing-f-14-tomcat-jets-in-action-and-much-more/
    Kish Air Show: A Rare Opportunity To See The World’s Last Flying F-14 Tomcat Jets In Action. And much more.
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    A Persian Tomcat during Kish 2018 airshow. Image credit: Leszek Kujawski/FoxTwo.pl

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    IRIAF F-14 performing a high-speed pass. All images credit: Leszek Kujawski/FoxTwo.pl

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    Close up on the unique formation of a KC-747 with two F-14 Tomcats and three F-4 Phantoms.

    This one below is Iran's Saeghe fighter, built using the F-5 air frame design but with different avionics, weapons and I believe even engine.

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    The Saeqeh with its peculiar V shaped tails.

     
  2. Iranian Monitor

    Iranian Monitor Well-Known Member

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    Here are some pictures of some of the components that go into the Iranian aircraft that are being produced in Iran.

    Engine: The Owj engine was Iran's first turbo jet engine:
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    Production line for the air frame of the Kowsar, which can also serve as production line for all similar designs based on the F-5 (e.g., Saeghe, Azarakhsh, etc)
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    Iran's Fakour 90 air-to-air missile (Iran's version of an improved Phoenix long range air-to-air missile)
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    Avionics and Cockpit
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    A good video about the Kowsar fighter, which looks identical to the F-5 but is not the same plane when you look inside, at its weapons, parts etc.
     
    Last edited: Aug 11, 2019
  3. JessCurious

    JessCurious Well-Known Member

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  4. JessCurious

    JessCurious Well-Known Member

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    I question whether the iranian Government is all that much more sophisticated mow than it was in 1988. 2012 saw the
    murder of blogger Seyyed Sattar Beheshti while in custody. He was arrested by the cyber police on October 30th after posting
    negative comments about the Iranian judicial system, which he called "nothing but a slaughterhouse." On November 6, his
    family was notified to come and collect his body. He was buried under tight security and only one family member was allowed
    to attend. International Human Rights organizations at once condemned the death of the healthy 30-year-old. As a result of
    these protests, General Saeed Shokrian, head of the cybercrimes unit, was fired. Giti Pourfazel, the Beheshti family's lawyer,
    got hold of a Coroner's Report saying the young man had died from internal bleeding, hemorrhaging in his lungs, liver, kidneys
    and brain. Eventually, Cyber police interrogator Akbar Taghizadeh was charged with manslaughter and sentenced to three years
    in prison and 74 lashes. Giti Pourfazel commented, "In a country where journalists are sentenced to six years in prison, a three
    year prison sentence against a murderer is strange."

    In July of this year, we read about the arrest of 18-year-old gymnast Maedeh Hojabri, who posted clips on Instagram that
    showed her dancing in her bedroom. Hojabri had taken off her Hijab when she got home from school, and thus violated the law
    against been seen in public without one. She thought she was safe because she was alone in her room, but authorities decided
    she was in public because she was on Instagram. She also violated a law against women performing by themdselves in public.
    Hojabri was made to appear on national television and make a tearful, groveling, apology for her actions. It is not known if there
    will be any further punishment. In 2014, six young Iranians were sentenced to a year in prison and 91 lashes for dancing to the
    Pharrell Williams' song "Happy" in the streets of Tehran.

    I also have a question for you, the trials I have read about in Iran, such as the hanging of 16-year-old Atefeh Sahaaleh,
    took place in front of a judge, rather than a jury. I know that sometimes juries are used in Iran, but how is it decided who gets
    a judge and who gets a jury?
     
  5. Iranian Monitor

    Iranian Monitor Well-Known Member

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    Except in media cases, there is no right to a jury trial in Iran under Iranian law.

    While I stand by what I said in terms of the more sophisticated and nuanced policy of the government in dealing with dissent as a general proposition, none of it was meant to suggest that I consider Iran's day-to-day judicial or law enforcement apparatus itself either all that sophisticated or even necessarily really efficient. Abuse of rights occur with great frequency, the system doesn't comport at all with what I would consider proper "due process", while at the same time, the system has huge holes which actually allow much of the kind of behavior that should and could be properly punished to go unpunished. If it was up to me, the system would be revamped completely.
     
  6. Doug1943

    Doug1943 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    To Iranian Monitor: what do you think/know/believe about long term demographic trends in your country?
    Is there a move from the countryside to the cities? Urbanization, I mean.
    Is the educational/cultural level increasing?
    Are the newer generations becoming more 'liberal-minded' than the older?
    How are people reacting to the confrontation in the Straits?

    I know I could find some information about some of these questions by doing some online searching, and I probably will. But I would be very
    interested in what you have to say.

    Iran is probably the country about which Americans have the most dis-information, of all the important countries in the world -- although Russia may run a close
    second. For countries like China they are just largely ignorant, ie have no information. Not a criticism of my fellow Americans, probably most people of most countries know little about other countries, although the Americans, via Hollywood, probably get 'known' about by many people, although what they 'know' via Hollywood films is largely rubbish.
     
  7. Iranian Monitor

    Iranian Monitor Well-Known Member

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    Iran is a country where Americans definitely have a completely false image of. Years of propaganda against Iran have created a caricature that is so at odds with the reality in Iran, that people are simply shocked with what they encounter when they visit the country.

    As for your questions, the quick answer is: At the time of the revolution, the ratio of urban to rural in the population was around 30-70, while today it is the reverse with more than 70% of the population living in urban areas. Iran has a highly educated populace as a whole, with millions of students attending universities every year, with 60% of the students in university actually women. The country is a lot more "modern", with rather good infrastructure even compared to some western countries, and while the purpose of the sanctions is to hold down the material conditions of life in Iran, I would even say Iranians are a lot more prosperous than many in the west would assume. The latter, however, not something that can be established by statistics as any statistic that is in nominal USD will give a very false picture (real, GDP per capita on the PPP index does much better but even that can't capture the picture of an economy where much of it is off the books and underground).

    As for attitudes and political beliefs, there is obviously going to be a divide between the younger generation and the older generation on some issues, with many young Iranians quite westernized in their beliefs and practices. At the same time, though, it would be wrong to assume that all younger Iranians are necessarily more "liberal" than their older counterparts, especially when it comes to foreign policy like issues. While there are millions of Iranians who prefer to see Iran in contact, trade, and commerce with the rest of the world and do not have any particularly ideological attitude towards these issues or towards any country in particular, on the whole (and with many exceptions for sure), patriotism or nationalistic sentiments are probably stronger, less jaded and more acute among young Iranians than their parents. When it comes to foreign powers trying to confront Iran and humiliate it, these younger Iranians will actually be a lot more determined to see Iran stand up for its rights than older Iranians who might have more complicated views on the subject.

    p.s.
    There are thousands of videos and accounts by those who visit Iran which focus primarily on trying to break down the false stereotypes about Iran simply because that is first and most important thing people realize when they visit Iran. That they have essentially been lied to about the country and the image they need to have about it. Here is one that I felt did a good job.


    p.s. if you did watch the first episode and liked it, you can see episode 2 and 3 below:

     
  8. Doug1943

    Doug1943 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Thanks very much for your response which confirms my own views. Americans of all political persuasions do not understand other peoples' national pride. Since they cannot conceive of their own country being invaded or bullied, they aren't able to access 'How would I feel if ..." thought experiment data that they could then apply to others. Not their fault, just a product of geography and history.

    How many Americans know that there are Jews in the Majlis? That single fact alone ought to tell them that this country is not a Shi'ite ISIS-model Caliphate, whatever it is.

    If I could say one thing to Iranians who look forward to a thoroughly democratic Iran, it would be this: there is a malign synergy between Ultra-Zionist Israeli nationalists, the people intending to annex the West Bank, on the one hand, and any Muslim leader who appears to be endorsing the extermination of Israel, on the other.

    Acknowledging Israel's existence, as a historic fact that is not going to be reversed except in some sort of catastrophe that will burn up the whole Middle East is probably psychologically almost impossible for devout Muslims, even if the main Palestinian leadership has already done so (and without any ensuing advantage to themselves). But it's got to be done.

    Thank you for those videos which I shall watch and then redistribute to places where they may do some good.
     
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  9. Jeannette

    Jeannette Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Lovely videos. Thank you!
     
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  10. NMNeil

    NMNeil Well-Known Member

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  11. Robert E Allen

    Robert E Allen Banned

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    October 28 2008 2 a-10 pilots save a group of marines in Afganistan.

    Iraq 2003 f-16cj pilot Dan Hampton after leading a mission over Iraq gets a call for emergency close air support near Nazaria.
    A sever dust storm is coming to the area.
    Several other groups of fighters failed to find the target. Hampton rolls in finds an enemy armored column but is unable to engage it with his maverick missiles.
    The Mariners are screaming on the radio that they are about to be over run. Now armed with only his 20 mm cannon roles in with less than a mile of visibility, makes 2 passes and destroys the enemy and saves the lives of the Marines.
    Ohh did i mention he was way below bingo.
    The refueling tanker had to break their rules and enter Iraqi airspace to get him fuel to avoid crashing.
    After refueling all the nearby airbases and airports were closed due to the sandstorm.
    On top of that several other pilots who had gotten lost were assigned to him.
    He then found a base that had 1/4 mile of visibility, far below what is acceptable.
    He found the base, created an instrument approach on the spot and led all thebother f-16s down safely.

    Bad mouth them all you want.. fighter pilots are the very best America has to offer.
    There are thousands of stories like this.
     
  12. JessCurious

    JessCurious Well-Known Member

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    Thank you for your reply!
     
  13. Iranian Monitor

    Iranian Monitor Well-Known Member

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    Thanks for taking the time to watch the videos. There are plenty of folks here who have very definite opinions about Iran, but honestly don't know the first thing about it beyond the ridiculously false pictures they are accustomed to seeing from their media.

    This applies to some extent also to their view of Iran's military programs as well, which is also affected by the general propaganda campaign against Iran. While here the ultimate view that Iran lags behind the west in military technology is not entirely baseless, the propaganda against Iran simply distorts the larger truth in a far more fundamental way. Forty years of sanctions and being basically under various arms embargoes which prevent Iran from receiving sophisticated foreign technologies, while at the same time living in an environment where Iran faces all sorts of threats to its national security, Iran has learned to not only develop the right tactics to counter its enemies -- but also to develop the right weapons for those tactics. There are half a dozen battlefields in the region where both these tactics, and the weapons to support them, have been used to great effect.

    Take one of those battlefields which is largely neglected in the western press, despite the untold cruelty and human tragedy being visited upon one of the poorest countries on earth, namely Yemen. In this regard, the country with the 3rd largest military budget in the world, one which rivals that of China and which only spends less money than the US, with a defense spending greater than Russia (!!), is none other than Saudi Arabia! But how successful have they been against the rag tag Houthi force they have tried to defeat in vain in 4 years of fighting?

    And remember: for Iran, Yemen is far from the top of the list of foreign policy priorities and Iran's assistance to the Houthis is more symbolic, and mostly in the form of limited supplies of our less expensive and less sophisticated missiles and drones that can nonetheless be tested against America's Abrams tanks, F-15 aircraft, patriot missiles and warships. Yet, the Saudis have dug themselves in such a hole in Yemen despite all the support they have received, it now generally accepted that they are simply not going to be able to win the war. No matter how much famine, misery, and genocide they commit.

    https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2019-08-11/yemen-saudi-arabia-face-unwinnable-war
    As top allies scale back in Yemen, Saudi Arabia faces prospect of an unwinnable war

     
    Last edited: Aug 12, 2019
  14. Iranian Monitor

    Iranian Monitor Well-Known Member

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