Its probably the adserving software that the sites uses to cycle ads through their sites / networks that would have bottlenecked. They would pass on the instructions that set the size of the object to the browser and point it to the actual ad image. Ads shouldn't slow down a page - even if the third party adservers' servers went down, you should still get the page loading quickly with an empty ad-hole. Bigger sites ensure that ads served into their sites won't cause this kind of slowdown.

Everyone knows Russia quit the cold war after watching a delta force marathon. Iran is one step closer to achieving a Chucktatorship. If only LOTR had more roundhouse kicks....

But you can always go play a different mission. Usually you have 2 or 3 to choose from; there's no need to beat your head against the wall continuously on the same mission. At the same time there is the motivation for success that makes the game challenging. I think its a good system but it is difficult/imposisble to implement in more strucutured games