How do you fight an enemy that doesn't fear death?

Well, the thought for this post came from a couple of sources. First one was the F-22 Raptor crash that occurred yesterday. This was the end for a 120+ million dollar plane. Pilot... not sure if he made it out or not. But that's not the focus of this post.

Just a few weeks ago, there was public outcry for AIG to renege on their contracts to some employees. Those totaled around 218 million from the recent numbers. But before the numbers were closer to 150 million or so. Not that I'm asking people to go out and boycott the military and ask for the pilot to repay the money or something, but it makes you think a little bit. WHY in the hell do we need an aircraft that costs 120 million dollars each. Yeah yeah it has sensors that can put a missle up a flys ass from 20 miles away... but does that really matter when your opponent is stuffing bombs in camels? And blowing themselves up.

I do think that technology needs to take a bit of a backseat in these times. How many armed forces do more with less? Now, don't get me wrong, I do think that our guys and gals out in the field need good equipment. I am not saying skimp on proper equipment, but currently I would say that we are doing a lot of experimenting as well, and that experimenting is costing a lot of extra dollars. Check out the A-10 Thunderbolt II or "Warthog" as I like to call it. That tank killing machine has been around for what seems like ages (1977) And costs only 12 million or even the F-16 for under 20 million each. Hell even the F-117 Nighthawk is only just over 42 million. Why must we try to have bigger and faster when what we have obviously works? I'm sure we could have an amazing fleet if we would focus on refining what we have instead of trying to reinvent the 'wing' each time we make an aircraft.

So, how DO you combat an enemy that doesn't fear death? Well, it damned sure isn't by spending excessive money on unnecessary technology.