Telionis

Excuse the ignorance, but do you guys actually have any problems with anyone? As a Greek descendant I intimately understand the Greek-Turk conflict and know that the two could go at it at any time, and as an American, well nobody really likes us... plus if Earth is ever invaded, everyone will expect us to fight off the Aliens as per every single sci-fi movie we've made... But the Aussies, nobody dislikes you guys and you guys have no problems with anyone, right? I mean, don't tell me that if you had a larger army you'd go kick Malaysia's ass or something!?! Honestly I have no idea... just curious as to why you would need more protection. Aside from China randomly deciding to conquer the entire south pacific like Japan tried to in the 1930s, who would possibly harass the Aussies?

First of all, flex our muscle? But it wasn't really a fight (not like in 1991 when Iraq was a serious player in the middle-east). Furthermore, we kicked their military's ass, only to get bogged down and lose people daily to the insurgantes, that makes us look like fools, not tough-guys. I can only hope Bush isn't that crazy as to have invaded a nation to show the world how large our byceps are. Also, retaliation? For what? Trying to kill Bush Sr 10 years ago? That's quite possible, unfortunatly. If they could prove that, Bush Jr should be executed for high crimes and treason. You can't drag the whole nation into war, kill 10,000 of our boys, kill 100,000 innocent Iraqis, cost us 300 billion US, all because you're pissed off at the enemy's leader. That's certainly an act worthy of a firing squad if that the case (and I'm against capital punishment), but we'll never know. Since you've got a popularly elected government (unless I'm very mistaken), how then are you not a Republic? Simply in name???

If you call the shots, you're blamed whenever something goes wrong. Plus, everyone hates the boss, regardless of what kind of job he's doing (especially if he's meddling in everyone's business). How I wish we could go back to the isolationists we were before WWII. Now all our old allies hate or at least think very poorly of us, the Chinese think they might have to fight us one day, and the Muslims literally think we're Satan. I wish we could just say: " you want to buy our stuff, good, sell us stuff, good, otherwise sod off." I consider myself an educated American (oxymoron ), but even I didn't realize that. Sorry. Were you guys there for the duration, or just in the beginning? What you guys need, is to make a blockbuster movie about Australians in Vietnam. That way, most Americans will actually know about it. (BTW, yes, now 85% of Americans think that Xerxes the Great was an 8' tall body-pierced freak of a Persian that sounded like the bad guy from Stargate, but hey, at least they now know he invaded Greece and the Greeks owned him). BTW, that super climate radar system you guys invented that can detect Stealth bombers (apparently, it can't see the bomber, but it is sensitive enough to see the turbulence the bomber causes when flying), pissed Washington off quite a bit. So at least you've got that. (Expect Chinese visitors soon). Nukes are good for almost nothing. When would anyone use them except to retaliate for being nuked (which probably happened because you had nukes)... well I guess you need them because if someone like Hitler had nukes and nobody else did, the world would be in deep sh-t. But you don't need nukes to kick ass, look at Italy, Germany and Japan today, the latter two aren't even supposed to have armed forces, yet they are undeniable world powers (militarily also). You guys are in fact in an envious position. If it comes down to it, you've got the US, France and UK to confront the enemy and prevent them from trying to conquer the world with nuclear force, and you guys can stay out of the a nuclear stand-off part of the confrontation entirely. Uhh... complete ignorance on my part, but in what way are you guys not a republic? I know you're not governed by Queen Elizabeth!?!

Sorry for reviving an ancient thread... though you'd like a yankee's perspective (though actually here in VA, "yankee" is quite a dirty word, they're still ticked off about the civil war). George Bush should be jailed for much more than just that. He's caused more damage to the US than Osama could have with half-a-dozen Soviet nukes. Worse than that, half (almost exactly half) of America still doesn't realize that. If we have a hidden agenda, it's hidden from the population also. I've very often wondered what the f-ck Bush was thinking attacking Iraq? There is no justification. People say, "Saddam was an evil bastard." True, but there are many more evil regims in the world, and many nations in more need of outside help. Look at Congo, Liberia, Sudan, all of them are in chaos, genocide is rampant and ongoing. While Saddam was a bastard, he was certianly not the worst. Yes, he killed 1500 Kurds 25 years ago, but at the time, we were well aware of it and turned a blind eye (so wrong of us, bad Reagan), now we decide to do something? At the same time, the Sudanese government is supplying militias with machetes and telling them to go murder all the blacks. Well, the way we roll, I guess in 25 years they'll be in serious trouble. - So that can't be the reason. People say, "Saddam didn't disarm and we had to disarm him." Well, while Saddam may have been playing with bio/chem weapons (as if everyone else in the area wasn't doing so already) – but North Korea 100% was building nuclear weapons. So how can we say, we must disarm Saddam, when more dangerous regimes, ones that have actually threatened us like North Korea (which said it would purposly seek out and supply terrorists with nukes if we harassed them), are building much more dangerous weapons. Furthermore, if we're so interested in disarming the world and enforcing nuclear non-proliferation, what were we doing while India and Pakistan were building bombs? Pakistan's A.Q. Khan is known to have supplied nuclear technology to Libya, North Korea and Iran and was in a process of selling materials to Al Qaeda when he was stopped. Yet we're still buddies with Pakistan, and instead invaded Iraq, because Saddam may have some unstable Sarin gas... - So that can't be the reason. People say "we invaded to remove a terrorist haven" - but those people are just retarded. Nobody actually believes that Saddam had any connection with Osama (though at first Bush really tried to play it that way and fooled 75% of the US). As far as we know, Osama tried to assassinate Saddam several times, and while Saddam probably did hate us, his nation was hardly contributing as many terrorists as our good buddies the Saudis. Furthermore, a child could see that invading Iraq would create more terrorists than it would stop. Well, a child… so I say 50/50 Bush realized this. - So that can't be the reason. People say "we invaded for oil" - but that's rediculous also. Furthermore, oil prices have never been higher, production was decreased due to our damage of the Iraqi infastructure, and the Arab world is even more pissed off at us (and quite willing to raise prices even higher). - So So that can't be the reason. So why? I have no idea... none whatsoever... I mean, I honestly spent quite a lot of time thinking about it and I think I have eliminated every possible explanation. The only possibilities left are that Bush thinks God told him to do it, or that he was mental and obscessed with Saddam. As I said, if there is a hidden agenda, it is very well hidden. _______________________ The position we're in now sucks. Do you guys know how many of our soldiers over there are Reserves and National Guard (they latter are not supposed to ever leave the country, hence the name). One of my best friends from high-school just came back from Iraq. He joined the Reserves as soon as we both graduated. Shoot, I almost did the same because Clinton was still in charge and I was thinking, “come on, it’s the USA only World War 3 would require us to activate our reserves, and in that case, I’ll certainly want to fight.” Can you imagine three years later being activated, leaving your home and job, and patrolling the deserts of Iraq, all the while the whole world sees you as the invading badguy. The base he was at had a radar tracking system that would detect mortars. It could predict the trajectory of the mortar and would only sound an alarm in the section of the base that was going to be hit. (This was to save the rest of the base from 1000 alarms a day). As such, if you heard the alarm, you knew that you were within the 100 x 100 foot square that was going to get hit. He said, even then, it went off so often, that when it would wake him, he would just turn around and go back to sleep hoping it wouldn't land near him. They had a phalanx system, but weren’t allowed to use it if there were any planes of any kind in the area (95% of the time). I’m glad he came back, but many don’t. :( His barracks and all his stuff got destroyed one day, but everyone happened to be out doing stuff thankfully. I have never ever heard that sentiment from any non-American. It's very refreshing to hear that our reputation wasn't entirely destroyed by our recent idiocy.

Thanks for the welcome all. In regards to the horsepower? How so? Ours manufacturers report net crankshaft horsepower (with all accessories attached). Not the gross figures like the 1970s where the engine was put on a chassis-dynos with no exhaust and no accessories to drive. Most of the figures I quoted were hp at the wheels (the Cobra for example, 700 rwhp ~= 850-870 bhp SAE net). Which standard do you guys use? ISO's? The EUs? A domestic OZ standard? _________________ If your currancy is doing better than usual now (and our dollar is weaker than it was 5 years ago), your cars should appear more expensive than usual to an American!?! Not the other way around!?!

George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Condoleezza Rice are all trapped in a burning building with no escape... who gets saved? _____________________ One day, while visiting the Queen of England, George Bush asks her how she does such a great job running the country. Not wanting to explain her ceremonial role in a constitutional monarchy, she just said that she surrounds herself with smart people. To give an example, she asked Tony Blair a simple question. Tony, if your parents had a child that was not your brother nor your sister, who was it? Rather quickly, Mr. Blair said, "it must be me." Excited to try this out, George Bush asked Dick Cheney the very same question as soon as he returned. Unable to answer, Cheney wandered the white house asking various aids, until he found Colin Powell. Mr. Powell correctly answered "it must be me," so Cheney ran to Bush and said, "if my parents had a child that isn't my brother or my sister, it must have been Colin Powell!" Bush angrily replied, "no you idiot... it was Tony Blair." _____________________ I'm not a racist, but, what would you get if you crossed a Mexican with an Octopus?

Now wait a second... the standard XR6 is 45k AUS isn't it? That's $37k if converted to USD. That's well cheaper than a BMW 330 is in the States. BTW - the closest highway to me has a 55 mph limit. It is divided and it is an interstate highway (it is not some silly side road that goes from town to town). If you've really got lower speed limits than that, then I have to concede that you're worse off in that regard. Hey - it must be mid-day Monday there, shouldn't you guys be working instead of perusing the forum. :D

Thanks for the welcome, both of you. But Dagabond, don't tell me you're actually pining for the good old "buttstang 5.slow?" (The Chevy guys came up with that, as one might have imagined). Well, ok I've got to admit that the 03-04 Cobra is pretty amazing. It's rated at 390 hp, but it's quite underrated as most people here dyno 380 to the wheels. Furthermore, bolt-on mods (including a new pulley for the supercharger to up the boost) and it'll put almost 500 to the wheels. Nearly 500 rwhp for $2500 over the cost of the car. It's the first car in the US to dethrone the MKIV Supra turbo as champion of highest performance gain with just bolt-ons. Kenne Bell makes a s/c fuel upgrade kit for the thing that will produce 700 to the rear wheels, with a completely stock bottom-end, total cost $7000 + car for 700 rwhp. Very decent deal, but it still looks just like every other Mustang out there (and there are quite a few of them in the States). You guys see the 09 Dodge Challenger? If that ever comes out here, at least we'll have one immensely desirable sub-$45k car. Not that the Evo's aren't nice. ___________________ I've got to find some Aussie football to watch here... it sounds very interesting, maybe as entertaining as our football, but I can't for the life of me understand the rules just by reading them. As for Cricket, I just gave up on understanding that one.

Lucky bastards... I'm so terribly envious of your car market, especially the XR6. You guys have got the best of every market… you’ve got Skylines and Holdens, Evos and Falcon GTs and XR6s… On the other hand, here in the states, we just got another, (not another…), slight update to the amazing Ford Crown Vic . An easily modifiable, turbo straight-6, four doors and rear-wheel drive… the engine is actually big enough to spool something and is already a single turbo setup. Gosh darn it, that’s the absolutely perfect car, perfect, and $45k AUS, it’s even affordable. The only thing you have to decide is whether to get the v8 or turbo-6. You lucky bastards! (I also saw that one of your tuners was able to get 1100+ hp out of an XR6, so there’s even an energetic e tuning community). We got a 2-door Expensive Daewoo which the states branded as the “all new Pontiac GTO,” and our car magazines couldn’t stop raving about it, calling it BMW like in ride and refinement. But of course they had to make it look like any other Pontiac, then adding some terribly ugly hood-scoops that make it look like a riced-out Grand Am (literally). It was also bloated with so much extra weight that even with a 400 horsepower V8 and 6-speed manual; it still ran high-13s @ 103-104 in the quarter-mile. Even then, it was an awesome machine, yet it didn’t sell well and they never even considered the 4-door. Now the only four-door performance machine we can get for under $50k US is the Chrysler 300C… more of a land-yacht than a BMW M5-fighter. :( Ford and GM are dying in the States… they can’t sell to save their lives, 4-door sports cars are destroying them (Toyota and Nissan’s 3.5L RWD 4-doors), and yet nobody in their US office thinks “hey, our Australian counterparts have the perfect machine and the only development we have to do is figure out how to switch the steering wheel and pedals…” It blows my mind. One day I’ll get an XR6 even if I have to sneak it through Mexico. Honestly, it'll take a few years, but one day I'll import one. (Or move ). It takes about 20k US to get a foreign car into the States, but it would still be cheaper than a BMW M3... nobody around here would have any idea what the unassuming four-door right-hand drive Ford would be capable of). _______________________________ Alright, guess I'm envious of your general position... I've got to move down there... you guys have all the advantages of both the US and England, rough sports, nice beaches and muscle-cars, yet you're not interested in interfering in every other nation's business and are not 51% ignorant/religious fanatics. Australia must be the coolest place in the world... and to think, the Brits thought they were punishing the people they sent there.