Sunday, September 17, 2006

Non-Lethal War & Weaponry by Louis Evan Palmer




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Defensive Purposes









There has been a push into non-lethal weaponry recently but only as a complement to lethal weapons rather than as a substitute. That substitution will take a leap in principles and morality that the present crop of armies are unwilling to make.

We still have some "experts" advocating neutron bombs which preserve buildings and other structures and only kill people. We have other people pursuing ethnic-specific bio-weapons based on genetics so that again we kill only people and just the ones we target.

The research and nascent implementation on non-lethal weapons has a seeming focus on domestic crowd control or the subjugation of restive occupied populations. Worse, some of the implementations seem to have taken what was originally non-lethal and cranked it up several notches into the lethal, even highly lethal, range.

However, the benefit of being able to deploy effective non-lethal weapons would be tremendous. It would revolutionize and humanize international relations. It might seem ironic in that it would allow for increased aggressiveness due to its smaller impacts and implications. It would increase the demand for handling prisoners of war and medical treatment. Overall though, the impact is all to the good - less suffering, death and destruction.

Looking into the future, non-lethal weapons will be the norm. It will make war criminals out of nations that still kill when they wage war. It will make it much more difficult to be an aggressor in that you have to deal with other countries and their people rather than violently remove them. It will transform policing and return police somewhat back to the days of unarmed bobbies when deadly force wasn't regarded as a normal means of control.

An example of non-lethal weaponry are various types of high-energy beams that have been sporadically reported in the media. Of special interest was a x-ray type beam supposedly invented by a Canadian in North Bay which could fry electronic circuits, in particular, incapacitating planes and missiles. If feasible, this single weapon would obsolete entire arsenals. No wonder, that story has vanished.

Individuals, groups, political parties, nations have to start demanding that these types of weapons become available and that we make as fast a progression to them as possible. The tipping point will be when non-lethal weaponry can defeat conventional weaponry and that day is quickly approaching. The People must be on the lookout for it and insist that they are taken up in place of deadly weapons.

Non-Lethal War & Weaponry, Louis Evan Palmer, The Way It Can Be, http://twicb.blogspot.com
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Copyright Louis Evan Palmer 

He lives in Ontario Canada. His short stories have been published in numerous publications. 

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