People are idiots.

Just got a forward of a news release. USS Kitty Hawk is replacing its Tomcats with F/A-18E Super Hornets (kind of a misnomer, as they're not just "upgrades" of the -18, but mostly new aircraft. Think it's a bit of BS so they could get the money in... supposedly a less capable aircraft, too.)

Anyway... well, here's part of the release:

=====
The Super Hornet, a multirole attack and fighter aircraft, has 35
percent more engine power than the Hornet and increases the external
payload for missiles and bombs by two loads to 11.

"The deployment of this state-of-the-art aircraft must be aimed at
strengthening combat-readiness given the development of nuclear weapons
and other threats from North Korea," said aviation critic Yoshitomo
Aoki.

But local people are concerned that the Super Hornets will make even
more noise during frequent drills.

"I guess noise will be worse as the engine is bigger," said Hiromichi
Umebayashi, who represents a base-monitoring citizens' group called
Peace Depot.

An official of the Yamato city government said, "We will closely monitor
U.S. moves from the viewpoint of noise."

The Kanagawa Prefectural Government said it received more than 5000
complaints a year in the three years to 2002 about noise from fighter
jets near the Atsugi base, a 50 percent increase over previous years.
=====

A. No, the engines aren't bigger, they're "bigger than the other version."
B. More powerful does NOT mean more noisy, but it's a simple enough equation for these nitwits to misunderstand, and
C. Gotta love the sentiment. "Oh, help protect us, just do it somewhere else so you don't make any noise!" Can't have it both ways.

I have to wonder how many of these same nations would be screaming if we just said "Fuck you" to all of them, and pulled forces out of EVERY nation they're based in (except the ones that don't complain - let's see, Liberia wants some troops there for now, fine. Keep the bases in England, and... hmm. Who hasn't been complaining? Taiwan?)

How much money would they lose? How many of them would be fighting off an invasion within a few years (such as, oh, South Korea?)

And what about Iraq? Sorry, that's a no-win situation there. If we stay, the Arabs bitch about "infidels" being there. But if we said "Fine, we're leaving," what do you think would happen? A, some other religious nut would take control and start trying to grind everyone else down, B, there'd be someone trying to invade (Turkey in the north to "stamp out" the kurds, and why n ot some revenge from Iran?) and (C) you think the looting before was bad? Of course, then the Arabs would bitch because we LEFT. Hey, assholes, our forces are keeping you in one piece. Saddam Jr 1 and 2 are worm food. We're spending money to work on rebuilding, and get you some ACTUAL police and such - not paid government thugs who'll rape your sister if you look at them funny, after they play "Pin the electrode to the scrotum" with you.

On the other hand, maybe they have a right to be pissed. After all, the RIAA sent one of their honchos over to "rewrite" Iraq's copyright laws. Guess they'll still have a partial dictatorship. Suprised he didn't make copying a file punishable by execution. (Come to think of it, I *think* it was a woman.)