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Congratulations on a fairly even-handed post. However, two points I disagree entirely with: "From their point of view they are in a helicopter, scared, and af

Congratulations on a fairly even-handed post. However, two points I disagree entirely with: "From their point of view they are in a helicopter, scared, and afraid that someone is going to shoot a RPG at them." Guys in chopper: Wrapped in bulletproof glass and several inches of heavy armour, with enough firepower under their thumb to reduce a battalion of tanks to scrap metal (remember attack gunships like the Apache were designed to repel Soviet tank formations from coming over the Rhine during the cold war). Iraqi guys on street: wrapped in cheap cotton shirt, with a 70 year old assault rifle under his arm. Completely oblivious to the angel of death hovering above (the chopper was circling for quite some time at the very start of the video; no-one, least of all the RPG gunner, seemed to notice). "Think about how bad they must feel knowing that they killed innocent people when they thought they were killing the enemy." Think about how bad the poor Iraqi mothers must've felt during the closed-casket funeral. Or how they feel now, seeing their husbands/sons/brothers being gunned down all over YouTube. I hope none of them have internet connections for their sake.

epochwolf 17y ago
Guys in chopper: Wrapped in bulletproof glass and several inches of heavy armour, with enough firepower under their thumb to reduce a battalion of tanks to scrap metal (remember attack gunships like the Apache were designed to repel Soviet tank formations from coming over the Rhine during the cold war). An RPG can take out an Apache. If you hit the main and tail rotors you have a good chance of causing the helo to crash.
- patrickk 17y ago
  Fair point, but you still have to spot the chopper first! Plus the chances of an RPG actually hitting a circling chopper at a good distance are pretty slim, as RPGs are notoriously inaccurate. The gunner would probably nail the RPG guy before he got his shot off. EDIT: If you continue reading below, some guys worked out that the chopper was about a mile away from the targets, based on muzzle velocity of the Apache's chaingun and the delay of the bullets reaching the target. Some chance of an RPG hitting that.
  - epochwolf 17y ago
    Yay, I just read that comment about the distance. I didn't think about that.

epochwolf 17y ago

Guys in chopper: Wrapped in bulletproof glass and several inches of heavy armour, with enough firepower under their thumb to reduce a battalion of tanks to scrap metal (remember attack gunships like the Apache were designed to repel Soviet tank formations from coming over the Rhine during the cold war). An RPG can take out an Apache. If you hit the main and tail rotors you have a good chance of causing the helo to crash.

patrickk 17y ago
Fair point, but you still have to spot the chopper first! Plus the chances of an RPG actually hitting a circling chopper at a good distance are pretty slim, as RPGs are notoriously inaccurate. The gunner would probably nail the RPG guy before he got his shot off. EDIT: If you continue reading below, some guys worked out that the chopper was about a mile away from the targets, based on muzzle velocity of the Apache's chaingun and the delay of the bullets reaching the target. Some chance of an RPG hitting that.
- epochwolf 17y ago
  Yay, I just read that comment about the distance. I didn't think about that.