[Arkcon]

geoschmo said:
"They'd probably do better taking out a few with sidewinders and scaring the rest off with a few highspeed passes then mixing it up in a real dogfight."

Yeah, that's the angle I harp on that everyone seems to ignore. In the movie they capture one Japanese scout. They force him to land on the supercarrier, he's escorted to the brig, and he takes a long quizzical look at the parked jet, before he gets taken away, and pretty much nothing elese happens.

He should have gotten a sprained neck whipping his head around -- a supercarrier, jet fighters, a giant mast bristling with satellite dishes, guys with radios built into kevlar helmets -- all of that should make about as much sense to him as the engine room of the Enterprise would to us -- if you've never seen a scifi movie or tv show.

I still say, hit one city with Nimitz's guided missiles, then slowly steam a carrier group over to the European theater, and send them some newsreels of what we got and what it can do. I'd expect people would want to cut a deal to shorten the war.

But maybe tipping our hand so much is so uncertain, that keeping it a secret is the best plan.