Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan would both be great if you are interested in hiking and mountaineering. Obviously Pakistan has all the topography as well but yeah stuff like that starts to make you rethink some trips.

I most certainly have not writen of the Stan's just due to general interest in the mountains.

This post was edited by SBD on Apr 27 2025 09:23am

On the “Invaders vs Colonizers” thing. Being of Numunu descent I can see this as pretty accurate. The colonists were in fact invaders as well (still are as well as their ancestors imo) but in modern times the huge difference is colonists had to pay tribute/taxes to the government/crown in fact a war happened because of the high rates of said taxes.

Just some split opinion on that. Both sides are technically right in different ways but ultimately in the modern USA people need to be held to the same laws, taxes and things of that nature if they wish to live here.

Fair point, and i agree, most of the stan's are different. I think being part of the USSR did have an impact on eroding radicalism in some of those places. My wife has a really good friend that married and lives in Kazakhstan and i would have no problem visiting Kazakhstan even though it's mostly Muslim. Most of those people and cultures are very hospitable and treat guests well as long as they are also respectful. I was too general with Muslim countries in general, just more so talking about that general region around the Indian subcontinent.

This post was edited by ofthevoid on Apr 27 2025 09:43am

This is really bad. They got him alive but seems pretty senseless so far.

This Canada incident proves you can be however strict you want on weapon laws and still evil people will find ways to kill someone.


EDIT:
I hope the families are served justice and find peace.

This post was edited by MadMan87 on Apr 27 2025 11:27am

https://www.foxnews.com/us/navy-f-18-fighter-jet-falls-red-sea-off-uss-harry-s-truman

We lost an F18 in the Red Sea and came dangerously close to taking serious damage to the USS Harry S Truman. Something has to be going seriously wrong with Carrier Strike Group 8 if the truman is doing emergency maneuvers to dodge fire

And another Canadian liberal government. That's how fast Trump makes people reconsider being conservative.

Took just two months of him being erratic to make Canada go from a total landslide conservative win back to an easy layup for the liberals.

Wild honestly. Before Trump my bet was total blue wave (conservative)

And to no surprise Bern lost his own riding again.

This post was edited by SBD on Apr 28 2025 08:49pm

How were the Houthi the first to report this story?
They took the credit for the kill like a whole two hours before the US news media confirmed it.
Everyone was rolling their eyes when the Houthi press conference made the claim.

This post was edited by PapaPsych on Apr 28 2025 08:57pm

If this is true then the US is probably running a smoke screen. Can you imagine admitting that we’re losing jets to sandal wearing goat herdsmen?

I’ve seen several reports of downed reaper drones by the Houthis. It’s obvious the Houthis actually have advanced enough weaponry to get us to back off, something the Taliban never had.

It puts us in a a really tough spot because you either escalate or back off. The last thing Trump wants right now is to get drawn into another dumb ME war that would cost trillions and there’s no will for the war. But we also can’t back off, otherwise they own Red Sea movement. So we’re stuck with these half measures. We do damage, wipe out a bunch of them but they just respawn and keep up the attacks. I do think current environment favors Iran’s negotiating position.

What I am at a loss for is, How did they know an F-18 fell off the ship unless they were in visual confirmation range, or had someone on the ship to tell them.