11/2    I want to share a story regards to shoulder-fire missile.  In the late
        1980s, I was talking to an immigrant from the mainland China.
        What make him an interesting figure is that he used to work in
        some rocket R&D/manufacturing facility in Gan-Su province.  I
        asked him rather China could make stuff as cool as shoulder-fire
        missile like Stinger. He told me, to my suprise, yes.  According
        to him, China got a good R&D boost when then the Socialist
        government of Afghanistan captured bunch American made
        Stinger missles from the Muslim extremist rebel (read: TALIBAN)
        which USA supported. It gave the mainland China half dozen of
        those shoulder-fired missiles. By reverse engineering it, China
        was able to make, though crude by comprison, a mock up that
        actually works.

        Isn't it kind of funny that both the regime which USA supported
        and the Stinger missile technology it leaks out as result, are
        coming back and haunt USA?
        \_ Why would that be funny?  You see, kid, there was this thingy a
           few years back called 'The Cold War' in which two superpowers of
           markedly different ideologies fought for global supremacy through
           a variety of means.  Control of obscure pieces of territory where
           cash flow and stragetic positioning of intercontinental nuclear
           weapons was the currency used in this 'Cold War'.  Sadly, since
           both of these Superpower thingies existed in the real world
           (rather than your ESL anti-US utopia), nasty immoral things often
           had to be done to keep the opposing ideological faction from
           gaining the upperhand.  This led to both of these regimes supporting
           nasty evil religious or just plain nasty and evil dictatorships and
           other things to keep the other in check.  That there 'Cold War'
           is now over, and sadly, these evil little regimes are still there.
           It is a phenomenon often referred to by educated people as 'the
           lesser of two evils'.  Keep this one factoid in mind: You're not
           nearly as clever, perceptive, or intelligent as you think you are.
        \_ Yea really funny you fucking traitorous piece of shit.   Go
           back your homeland if its so great.
        \_ technology is good for only 10 years, till which it'll be made
           obsolete by other technology or be stolen and used against the
           originator. It's happened to the Greeks, Egyptians, Chinese,
           US vs. Brits, etc. Nothing new here.
           \_ agree, then why we are so obsessed with 50 year old technology
              such as Nuclear bomb and chemical weapon?
              \_ Uhm, because they're weapons capable of inflicting casualties
                 in the 5-7 digit range relatively instantly?  Because their
                 manufacture is pretty sophisticated?  Maybe because the
                 materials are often difficult to obtain, create, or find?
                 Maybe because there are people out there that are willing to
                 inflict insane civilian casualties for completely ideological
                 reasons based strictly on hate?
              \_ Hey, nice bit of intenional intellectual dishonesty and
                 stupidity.  Is there a class where they teach that sort of
                 self induced blindness?
        \_ this is not the first time in history. The Ballista technology
           was taken away from the Roman army. The Greek fire was copied and
           used against the inventor's home. The American colony got
           the gunmaking technology from the Brits and won. The Japs got
           the plane technology from Boeing to make lots of Mitsubishi Zeros
           to attack Pearl harbor. The list goes on and on. I saw a documentary
           that says a new war technology is good for only 10 years, after
           which it'll be stolen or made obsolete.
           \_ agree, that is why I thought it's silly to invade Iraq,
              sanction North Korea over  poliferation of nuclear bomb and
              other WMD.
        \_ The Taliban came later, but whatever.  Anyway, as the above said,
           this is standard in warfare.  If you bring something to the
           battlefield, the enemy will eventually get their hands on one and
           reverse engineer it.  If you don't bring a new weapon to the battle
           then there was no point in making it, eh?  In addition to the above
           list, I'd like to add the bazooka which the WWII Germans eventually
           captured.  As the story goes, a few German generals got wiped out
           by back blast during a demonstration, but hey, it's just a story.
           \_ My point is not so much about proliferation of technology, as it
              is bound to happen.  I just thought that it's really silly to
              proliferate technologies over muslim fundamental extremist.
                                -- OP