So if our tankers are refueling Israeli jets in air are we participants

[Toots]

in this slaughter? Can we stay above the frey so to speak? We are active participants it would seem so every bit as guilty.

[FloridaPat]

1. Yes we're particiants. Supplying fuel, planes, bombs, whatever.

Also tons of vetoes in the UN.

[indepat]

7. Funding/supplying their every wish thus assuring a phenomenal kill ratio

[Joanne98]

2. YES! Just another war crime for the Bush Regime.

[iamjoy]

3. Why Do You Think They Bomb Us?

we tried the same thing in WWI and WWII. Oh, let's not join the war, but let's help our friends, give them supplies and so forth.

Well, the Germans blew up the Lusitania and tried to get Mexico to invade us, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.

al Queda brought down the World Trade Center.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

4. Why was the vice running wargames on that particular day?? This

has always bothered me.

[Minnesota Libra]

5. Mid air refueling was invented specifically to refuel...........

.....Israeli aircraft during one of the middle east wars - the 6 day war I think - but don't quote me on exactly which war.

The issue at the time was no country would allow US airplanes to land if they were in route to or in support of Israel. So the US simply developed mid-air refueling. Now it's a standard of operation.

[slackmaster]

6. Have you ever seen the movie Dr. Strangelove...

Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb?

The opening scene shows a B-52 bomber being fueled from a tanker in mid-air.

The movie was filmed in 1963. Mid-air refueling has been around since the '50s.

[guruoo]

9. Just had to look this one up...

'In-flight refueling was one way to set airborne endurance records.
The Atlantic-Fokker X-2A "Question Mark" stayed aloft for seven days
in January of 1929, refueling 42 times in the air. Because radio
communication was unreliable at this time, the pilots in the two
planes communicated by notes dropped to the ground and by hand signals,
flashlight signals, ground panels, and messages written on blackboards
carried in the planes.'
Source: http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Evolution_of_Technology/refueling/Tech22G1.htm

Mid-air refueling caught on GoogleEarth:
http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2006/06/kc135_caught_re.html

[slackmaster]

11. Double "Whoa!"

Thanks for the shocks.

[The Magistrate]

14. Nowhere Near True, Ma'am

Experiments in the practice on a small scale were successful before the Second World War, though it did not feature in that conflict. It was a standard practice of all air forces of any size during the fifties, to provide adequate range for bombers tasked with inter-continental operations, and loiter time for fighters, and has remained an essnetial element of air force operations everywhere from then down to the present day. Its development had absolutely nothing to do with U.S. and Israeli relations or co-operation.

[ladjf]

15. In 1935, the Curtis Robin airplane "Miss Ole Miss" was

refueled mid-air in order to set a world endurance record.

http://www.meridianairport.com/history.html

[ladjf]

16. 1935 in Meridian, Mississippi. Endurance record.

http://www.meridianairport.com/history.html

[Solo_in_MD]

17. Nonsense

It started in the 50s to support SAC and long range attacks on the Soviet Union. It was in active use during Vietnam as well for USAF and USN tactical aircraft.

Its not clear that the IAF aircraft have refueling capability and that their pilots are trained to do it. Its not easy...

[Minnesota Libra]

18. Apparently I grossly misunderstood but I thank everyone.............

....for correcting me.

I'm going to look into this a little more because I distinctly remember the USA refueling planes in mid-air on the way to Israel and there were some problems with the refueling.

Anyway, thank you all for bringing my attention to this.

[JHH]

8. I would be surprised if they need to refuel they are not flying that far

from their base. their ammo and bombs do come from US and spare parts.....

[TahitiNut]

10. You mean the Israelis aren't taking transpolar routes to Lebanon?

:rofl: (Some DU threads show a better grade of pot than I seem to get.)

[ContraBass Black]

12. We're WHAT?

:mad:

[muriel_volestrangler]

13. *are* refueling? Do you mean someone says they are?

Or did you mean to say "if our tankers were refueling Israeli jets"? I can't find anything anywhere saying US tankers are refueling Israeli jets in the air. As others have said, there wouldn't seem to be a need for it anyway.

Unless someone says the US is refueling Israeli jets, then your statement of "we are active participants" would seem to be wrong.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

19. Whether we are refueling Israeli planes or not

I would assume that the Pentagon was intimately briefed on the actions the Israelis intended to take in Lebannon and gave them the green light. Bush may look like he's spaced out at the G-8 summit and doesn't care what happens and is above the frey, but I think he is intimately linked to this, at least through foreknowledge and approval. With the U.S. having so many forces in Iraq between both the Iranian and Syrian borders, the Israelis would not take the risk of surprising the Pentagon.

[ContraBass Black]

20. Is there any truth to this?