Not exactly. There is a distinct difference between a soldier and a combatant. A soldier is trained and is a member of a standing military. The separatists can at best be described as "irregulars", or insurgents or rebels if you want to go with slightly more charged terminology. And who exactly is this "everyone" who are agreeing that they are all Eastern Ukranians? I have yet to see any reputable source make that claim. And Russia is not just supplying small arms to these groups. They are giving them tanks, armored personnel carriers, artillery, and anti-air systems (both MANPADS and tracked systems). You don't just pick these systesms up and start using them. They are recieving training, either in Russia or locally from trainers that Russia has moved into Ukraine. And given the fact that the missiles were launched from inside territory controlled by the rebelsis a very important detail. Why would the Ukrainians have anti-air equipment deployed in an area they do not control, against an enemy with no air power? All evidence points to the missiles being fired by the separatists, which means Russia had a hand in at the very least training them on how to use the equipment if not providing that equipment as well as continuing to use their influence to keep the conflict going.

The other night I was playing Red Orchestra 2 and I was prone behind a fence and found myself craning my head to try and see under the fence a little bit better.

OF course, twitchy fps's such as CoD or CS would be horrible with VR, as the movement is way too quick. But slower games such as Red Orchesatra 2 or more survival-type games such as DayZ would be incredible with VR. While "e-sport" type FPS's like CoD an Halo might flounder, I think VR will be a boon for more realistic sims and tactical shooters. I look forward to the day where I can play a game and look around and feel like I'm crossing the scorching hot steppes of Russia in 1942, crawling through the jungles of Vietnam in 1967, or even combing through the passageways of a dark deserted space station not knowin if a horde of aliens or zombies (or alien zombies) are waiting around the next corner for me.

Well, really just giving them money doesn't help them, as a significant number of homeless in American abuse either drugs or alcohol. If you do want to give them immediate help it is better to give them food or water.

Probably still tastes better than Florida's water.

Well, really France's mistake was assuming that during war the Germans might actually respect international boundaries. Either that or they simply forgot what happened only 30 years earlier.

Not quite. Getting blown in half by a .50 round isn't exactly the best recruiting platform. Especially if they can't even spin it as a brave sacrifice facing the evil infidels/Zionists/whatevers. A bullet hitting from a mile away with no warning whatsoever is a very demoralizing thing. Terrorists actually would hate technology such as this because it is more accurate and reduces the chance of collateral damage. Collateral damage is what they want, because all their potential recruits/supporters see are innocent women and children blown up and dead-not how or why they died, only that they died.

You have to do both: provide both the carrot and the stick. Show people that fighting will only earn them a useless, painful, and messy death while peaceful coexistence means prosperity, safety, and education. You are correct in that food and medicine are important (more important than money because they are harder for government, criminals, or elites to divert) but you need boots on the ground to provide stability and protection for those communities that have embraced peace. These boots on the ground also help by building/repairing roads, schools, and houses. When communities see that working with the goverment and denouncing extremism makes them prosper they are more likely to embrace it as well. Because let's face it: most of the people fighting in the world do so because they have greivances such as lack of educational, economical, or political opportunities. Given the choice, most people would choose those over fighting. You simply have to show them that choice actually exists.

The Marine Corps (it has an "s" in it-it isn't a business) isn't exactly known for arresting people. And in 1812 they were nothing more than naval infantry, which is why they went to the Barbary Coast. They were protecting American- and other states'- shipping. You know, kind of like what the US, France, Great Britain, and even Russia are doing right now off the Somali coast. The assertion you are trying to make is a very tenuous one.

Will be easier on the cleanup people when the robots commit suicide by jumping off the building. At least until the cleaners are replaced by robots too.

Sure, in the open sea subs use instruments. Even the periscopes these days are simply cameras. But in harbors or waterways subs move on the surface with conning tower manned. And all they have to deal with are a few larger ships and a couple more smaller harbor craft. Now, take a plane's equivalent: ramp areas or taxiways. They have to deal with houndreds of ground service equipment, aircraft service equipment, cars, and trucks. Not to mention thousands of people. As someone who has worked on a ramp around wide-body aricraft, I'm not going anywhere near a plane where I cannot see the pilot.

As someone who has worked on the ramp of a major international airport, I have concerns about how this would affect ground operations. On the ramp there is a lot of visual communication between the pilots and the gate crews and others on the ramp. Major airports have bag tugs, cars, aircraft service trucks, buses, and even commercial delivery trucks driving around on the ramp, and where the vehicle traffic intersects taxiways, being able to actually see the pilot in the cockpit is very useful so that you know that they can see you. It is not uncommon for a pilot to wave traffic across to indicate they are not ready to taxi yet (usually this is signaled by the lights on the front landing ger being on, but to due a bright day or a bad angle they can often be hard to see). While there are plenty of aids for flying that reduce the need for a pilot to have visibility, when they are on the ground operating alongside hundreds of vehicles and thousands of people, sight and visual communication play very important roles.

Remember how they got over in the book: our southern border is very porous. And once inside the country guns are very easy to get, and even semi-automatic rifles purchased legally can be dangerous in the wrong hands. All you need is one convert or supporter here to buy the guns at a gun show, gun stores, or even privately over the internet.

I'm still waiting for the Teeth of the Tiger shopping-mall attacks. We saw what happened in Kenya recently. Just imagine that in several malls across the US.

The Ford Model T cost $850 in 1909. The average hourly wage in 1909 was 22 cents per hour. That is a luxury price for a car. 5 years later as demand rose and production capacity expanded the price cut in half. The successor to the Model T was the Model A which, almost 20 years later, cost $500. Building luxury cars gets you a brand name, it brings in capital, and it lets you develop and expand production capacity. As your costs go down you can lower prices and expand into more economically priced models.

Technically the Cold War is so named because it was a time of hostility, but not outright and open conflict, between 2 powers. And power and influence-which is what the US and USSR were essentially fighting over(who would become the dominant superpower)-are very much types of resources.