Sorry, bit of dust in the air. Must have been kicked up by all the airpower being put out by the AC the Air Force has in my office.
edited 24th Aug '16 9:51:53 AM by AFP
Quite. But my post was more to point out to Major Tom that five-star ranks weren't exclusive to the army.
And Hap Arnold would also be an example of that, but not until 1947. He is the only airman to hold the rank of General of the Air Force, although he had already retired by then due to a heart condition.
Night Clerk of the Apacalypse.
Here is something to chew on.
In quite a few invasion themed fictional works humanity and its sum total of disparate military bodies have to pull together to withstand the enemy.
Now we all know that nationalism, excessive pride of all stripes, religion, and long standing bad history alone creates issues. That isn't taking into account the often vast differences in equipment of every military and their notably different military doctrines often suited to their military situation at the time.
How exactly do you go about uniting a world full of fractious war like species under one banner to fight a clear and present threat such as a massed alien invasion?
Who watches the watchmen?
Which country am I in charge of? The best plan is for the US and NATO to offer to cover the expense of transportation and equipment upgrades. That way, you join the alliance, and you stand to profit by the time it's over.
Where do they first land and who makes first contact? Because if they land in Russia and Russian experience proves the need for more their way of doing things, that's going to skew the equation. (Likewise if the aliens land in say Nebraska and US Army/Air Force experience drives the campaign.)
Then again, if they land in Russia or the US, you could expect that country's armed forces to take the brunt of the punishment early on. There might not be enough of that nation's military left to drive doctrine from that point onwards.
Although the US introduces an interesting twist in that after smashing the continental united states and its military structures, the invaders could find themselves dealing with a substantial American force dropping in from all directions. Or those forces might instead dig in where they are and go for containment instead, an army in exile defending the land they happened to be sitting on because where else can they go?
Night Clerk of the Apacalypse.
It has to be decided before touch down and by all measures it will be multiple points of incursion that do not recognize international territories or borders. All that is known is that there is an incoming alien invasion that will strike at the global level and by estimates of the incoming ships no one nation can hold their own including the super powers.
Who watches the watchmen?
rollin' on dubs
The aliens have to be: complete bastards who kill anyone/anything that stands in their way, Planet Looters and just don't care about allies.
A smart race would play various nations off one another or use bio-warfare to soften up the planet.
Enemies would unite in the face of an outsider, the problem is after the outsider is beaten. Then they turn on themselves. A smarter alien would send a smaller force to test the world and then when the factions are at their throats, attack with massive force after the factions have worn each other down.
The Dominion from Star Trek Deep Space Nine or the Shadows from Babylon Five: play the factions/nations off one another, make some allies and convince them "Let's You and Him Fight", then start blasted landmarks after everyone is too tired to put up a good fight.
All night at the computer, cuz people ain't that great. I keep to myself so I won't be on The First 48
Night Clerk of the Apacalypse.
Taira: That is nice and all but that isn't the question. How do you unite a world like Earth under one banner at least nominally to resist a global invasion that would mean no one nation doing their own thing can withstand the enemy force.
Who watches the watchmen?
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
So, for bad guys: The same old Imperial Honorable Merchant Company policy. Again. ![[lol]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lol2v12_4863.png "[lol]"){kind=small}
...This is become some kind of internal Running Gag for me, isn't it?
For Good Guys (read:Us): Well, when presented with clear and present danger, basically, most of countries will stand in line and fighting together. The ones that refuses to stand are basically too stubborn and/or too stupid (looking at you, Better Korea).
In worst case scenario, we might need something like Firewall. My normal estimation though; basically majority will stand in line, with handful of resistance from, well, the stupid and/or the prideful; basically, the ones who ill-informed or refused to accept the truth. Of course, there's opportunist here and there, but smart opportunist will wait until crisis solved before doing anything worthwhile (after all, if the cake got butnt, then there's no cake to eat, right?).
Night Clerk of the Apacalypse.
They want the surface intact enough for one reason or another including portions of infrastructure which means boots on ground.
Who watches the watchmen?
rollin' on dubs
Unite the world against aliens? Screw the world...'America FUCK YEAH!
Whenever there is a major crisis the US is always there in some way shape or form. I'm pretty sure that if aliens with bad attitudes started to vaporize people in other countries, they'd be calling the DOD.
Seriously: It would be a US led force mostly because the US has the logistics to pull off a fight against something like that. DARPA would be scoured for every scrap of ideas and new tech. NATO would be the idea way to get Europe protected.
And honestly, we've been training for joint ops since before the wall came down.
It would be the US as a framework for the rest of the world to fight off the invasion:
- US built aircraft carriers and ships with crews from around the world.
- US airlift moving supplies around.
- US Army and Marine advisors as teach most nations how to work being outgunned (get to dust off those old Cold War era war plans).
- JSOC gets to rebuild/train most irregular forces as the aliens chew up most militaries.
- Dust off Lend-Lease and put a lot of companies on a war footing.
- It'd suck balls,, but we'd have to get a lot of companies making defense goods that never have done it before. Unlike World War Two, it would be long and painful since only a handful of companies have the experience making things to real DOD specs/NATO STANAG.
- A lot of US units could also train and advise nations as soon as they get their shiny new American weapons (and European ones too). After OIF/EIF, a lot of US NCO's have trained foreign armies.
The cynic in me says, let the LGM's chow down on Russia, China and Iran. But I'd hate myself in the morning, so we'd bail them out.
Most nations would come around, it'd be gettng them to believe that the US can hurt the aliens. The DOD would have to pull off some really serious sh_t to show that, yes we can make the invaders bleed.
edited 26th Aug '16 12:04:16 AM by TairaMai
All night at the computer, cuz people ain't that great. I keep to myself so I won't be on The First 48
Assuming they don't win. That'd be the problem with the America Saves the Day trope in an alien invasion. What if they did land somewhere else only to get their asses handed to them by the Russians or Chinese? What if they landed in Mesopotamia only to trip over an ISIS IED and thus say fuck it and leave?
We'd start looking awfully silly and/or incredulous on the world stage at that point.
Well, China and Russia are quite plausibly can kick alien ass, but Mid East hotbed....
Well, if they're foolish enough not to perform aerial pest control before commiting to ground, maybe....
edited 26th Aug '16 4:58:09 AM by RBomber
So if Daesh decides they're going to wage Jihad on the interstellar invaders, that gives everybody else at least 20 minutes of extra prep time, and we don't have to deal with the Daeshbags any more.
Actually, if anything (alien included, natural disaster also) started to make troubles on area claimed by Islamic Government (self-proclaimed or not) (at least de facto), then aforomentioned Government must commited to help everyone under their rule (everyone, proclaimed-heathen-but-live-under-protection included [or in our word, dzimmi]), or they lose their legitimate, at least morally.
Morally, if they defect on some other power because you can't provide for them, then that's your Baggage on Judgment Day.
Sadly, they're more interested in "fighting-and-dying" stuff.
The law in the night
If they land in the Middle East and the locals manage to depose them, they are less of a threat than Zimbabwe if their goal is to land and conquer.
As for unifying the planet, Worldwar War Of Equals did a pretty good job on that, sure there was Venezuela trying to fuck things up thanks to Hugo Chavez ego and North Korea blackmailing everyone, but in the end when the world's space agencies detected an alien fleet on its way to earth and everyone with two thinking neurons realized it wouldn't be something a single country would be able to deal with, then every single major nation on Earth stated modernizing, re-militarizing in secret and drawing the invasion plans.
If the invasion is sudden and without warning, the initial shock should be more than enough to bring the top powers like the US, EU, China and Russia to the same page, other minor nations might have some disbelief initially but once everyone confirms that it is happening, it probably wouldn't take long for a summit to happen and everyone to get its act together. Sure smaller sectarian fights and other guerrilla fights would still be happening but they'd be either harshly dealt wit extreme prejudice or sidelined.
The post invasion should probably be developed into something like Independence Day 2 where a there is a unified defense effort to keep the invaders as far from Earth as possible or give Earth actual fighting chances without having the world destroyed in the process.
Inter arma enim silent leges
I'd honestly want to see something like Battle: Los Angeles. The Aliens are Juuuust strong enough to kick some serious ass, but weak enough where humanity can (plausibly) win if they put their mind to it. That film easily was the most balanced alien invasion (in terms of scale and "power levels" between humanity and the invasion force) movie ever produced imo.
New Survey coming this weekend!
Did the film ever explain how such an anemic force was able to travel all the way to Earth from distant points?
I mean, if you can send an invasion force from another star system, you probably already at least have energy capabilities far in excess of anyone on this pale blue dot.
Because Tom, your military is ridiciously huge.
As nice as the russian one is, it is not NEALY as big as yours.
And while china technicaly has one about the same size as yours, I dont trust there equipment to be worth a damn and there man power to be any thing more then human waves.
Arguably, traveling lightyears might have consumed most of your resources to the point that all you can afford to send is borderline understrength for the job.
Kind of like how the vikings discovered America but didn't stay. Sort of.
edited 26th Aug '16 11:26:43 AM by Belisaurius
The law in the night
There are some 
theories explaining the aliens in Battle Los Angeles, some of them involve the aliens being on their last legs and the invasion being an act of desperation, so instead of proper military transports they are jury rigged interstellar one way transports.
Which kinda explains why they made their landfall at the sea instead of sticking out in orbit or their lack of proper orbital weaponry being theorized due to them not being able to employ them.
Inter arma enim silent leges
And interestingly enough, considering the original question, they BLA aliens attacked EVERYONE at once, and pretty much every major country got caught with their pants down.
Now, I wonder what would've happened if humanity had a six month, one year, or even five year warning in preparation...
New Survey coming this weekend!