The Iraqi insurgents have no command and control system... Well, almost no command and control system. Surrounded by the U.S. military, and running out of ammo, the insurgents are using flags to coordinate last ditch attacks.
The U.S. military is not only bristling with technology and the latest weaponry, it has the ability to re-supply its troops; unlike the insurgents, who are totally cut off inside Falluja.
Incredibly, men wearing t-shirts and flip flops and armed mostly with machine guns and rocket propelled grenades are managing to kill U.S. soldiers, disable tanks and shoot down helicopter gunships.
The U.S. is spending
$177 million per day to kill people who are running around in tattered clothes and using small arms!
There is no way the U.S. can win this war.Forget the military futility of it. (And it is futile, consider France/Vietnam, France/Algeria, U.S./Vietnam, USSR/Afghanistan, Russia/Chechnya and dozens of smaller conflicts around the world.) The U.S. will bankrupt itself before it has a chance to wipe out the insurgency in Iraq. The U.S. loves to talk about asymmetric warfare. It's asymmetric alright... THE COSTS ARE ASYMMETRIC! What does it cost the "enemy" in Iraq to fight the United States? My guess is that it's less than $177 million per day! About $177 million less:
But these marines did see a black flag pop up all at once above a water tower about 100 yards away, then a second flag somewhere in the gloaming above a rooftop. And the shots began, in a wave this time, as men bobbed and weaved through alleyways and sprinted across the street. "He's in the road, he's in the road, shoot him!" Sergeant Brown shouted. "Black shirt!" someone else yelled. "Due south!"
The flags are the insurgents' answer to two-way radios, their way of massing the troops and - in a tactic that goes back at least as far as Napoleon - concentrating fire on an enemy. Set against radio waves, the flags have one distinct advantage: they are terrifying.
The insurgents are coordinating their attacks at a time when they have nowhere left to run. American forces have pushed south of Highway 10, the boulevard that runs east to west and approximately bisects Falluja. American intelligence officers believe that many of the insurgents have retreated as far as the Shuhada, a relatively modern residential area that is the southernmost neighborhood in Falluja.
posted by Kevin at 2:45 AM
This request for assistance can be summed up in one sentence, so I'll cut to the chase for all the gearheads out there:
I want to start with an MPEG2/AC-3 file and wind up with an MPEG2/48000 Hz - 16 bit - Stereo file.
If you want to know more, read on:
I'm working on the documentary and I'm learning the technical aspects of digital filmmaking...the hard way. Actually, the only reason it's hard is because I'm using multiple media formats and codecs. If all of the footage was DV, this would be a snap.... Anyway, it's not, so here I am.
I'm using MainConcept's MPEG Pro plugin for Adobe Premiere Pro. This allows for native editing of MPEG2 clips. I'm pulling clips off the TV and the problem is that my DVD+RW recorder produces MPEG2 files that use AC-3 audio. THE MAINCONCEPT MPEG PRO PLUGIN does not support AC-3 audio. Of course.
So....
DVDDecrypter is a really handy tool. It allows me to easily demux the AC-3 audio stream from my DVD+RW MPEG2 files into a separate AC-3 file. I then use BeSweet to transcode the AC-3 file into a .wav. In Premiere, I sync up the audio and video separately.
This is a huge pain in the hole (even if the results are great), especially since I have to do this with lots of material.
Now, I know there's a better way to do this since I have one MPEG2 file with audio that just works! Yep. I import the file into PremierePro/MainConcept and the audio is right there. It works because this file doesn't use AC-3 audio. According to Premiere's clip properties, the file's Source Audio Format shows 48000 Hz - 16 bit - Stereo.
Here's the question: Does anyone know of a tool that will allow me to transcode my DVD+RW MPEG2 files' AC-3 audio into 48000 Hz - 16 bit - Stereo in one step? i.e. without having to demux, transcode and sync up the separate A/V files in Premiere??? <--- It sucks doing it this way.
Bottom line: MPEG2/AC-3 file in. MPEG2/48000 Hz - 16 bit - Stereo file out.
Something tells me VirtualDub-MPEG2mod might be able to do this, but if it can, I don't see how. Can DVDDecrypter do it somehow? Thanks for any assistance.
NOTE: It's not a matter of installing the AC-3 filter.
posted by Kevin at 4:32 PM