Saturday, March 1, 2008

Speaking of less lethal weapons...

Here's a video from 60 Minutes about that laser cannon we discussed in class.

1 comment:

Lexcen said...

That weapon seems more suitable for crowd control than warfare. The object of war is to totally subjugate the enemy into submission of defeat.
An opponent will continue to oppose until all hope of resistance is gone.
Tribal warfare consists of an endless series of attacks by each side against the other side by claiming victims but usually not total defeat. Can you imagine nations acting out wars in a similar manner for a period of 100 years for example? What would you do if you were in control? Which option would you take? 100 years of attrition or total devastation of the enemy? You could err on the side of Donald Rumsfeld who wanted a short and relatively bloodless victory but wasn't prepared to commit the necessary forces to achieve his goals. Regardless of motives for war and justification or not, it is better to leave war to the professionals rather than let politicians run the war and make a complete fiasco out of it. Don't you think?