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But this part is serious.
I actually DO believe there is a prejudice against airpower, and I could go on about why I think so, what you and a great many others that aren't 'air-minded' miss about it. The thread about 'Most decisive weapon of WWII' was GREATLY instructive to me about what is believed and assumed about airpower by people that are knowledgable about other forms of armed force.
The FUNCTION of air forces is quite obviously different from what you're used to, and the capabilities are obviously poles apart, offering massive advantages, while having few relative disadvantages, compared to surface forces. Usually, airpower is misunderstood to have a 'support' function, when in reality, airpower is a PRIME warfighting force in the modern era. (I didn't say 'the only', nor most important', so don't make an argument that supposes that's what I'm saying. But it IS capable of winning wars in ways no surface force can match, or resist, or prevent.)
Personally, and I don't say this to be insulting (but you and Gunny and others that simply do not appreciate what airpower really does might read it that way), I assert that the reason you poo-poo this article or the decisive nature of heavy bombardment in WWII is because you see the air component of a force as an auxiliary, as combat support, as a facilitator of the REAL arbiter of battle: GROUND POWER.
Well, I think Bill Whitten sees what you don't. I also assert something else: this is WAY too deep a subject - with an emotional component to it to complicate communication's meaningfulness further - to take place like this, in an over-'n'-out fashion on a message board. We're simply going to talk past each other, and mis-understand each other's points (although I'm just arrogant enough to believe I 'get' you, but you're not understanding ME). I bet we'd have more fun and piss each other off a lot less if we could give-'n'-take face-to-face, so I'll leave it with this: I like you, I respect you, and I am NOT selling you short (as that would be a mistake). But I can see clearly where you're not seeing this relationship clearly.
Hope we're still mates, and you're not going to take this as a slap at you. It isn't.
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"The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it, and if one finds the prospect of a long war intolerable, it is natural to disbelieve in the possibility of victory."
- George Orwell
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