Reply To: The North Atlantic Current

[Duke Leto]

I think my point can be summarized as “don’t dicount the idea, but don’t turn it into a catchall explanation either.” There are obviously more factors involved than just religion and sexual frustration.

Rezwan wrote: This seems to demonstrate the utility of suicide bombing as a military tactic. Expensive weapons systems are useless, but some unsuspected person, walking into a crowded place, blowing himself up with a cheap bombs, that will have an impact. Not on the military. On the people behind the military who order the military around, e.g., the national will.

Well, remember that the national will of the US et al is generally not willing to utilize the superior military technology to “suppress” the suicide bombing population to the extent they are capable of so doing. I cited old Ghenghis’s mayhem in Central Asia because he had a conscious method of heading off future intifadas… “Kill them all and let Allah sort them out.” I don’t recall the Chagatai dynasty having any problems in that area until Temur came along a few generations later, in spite of the persisting religious difference. I certainly don’t advocate that method, but if FF doesn’t get off the ground in time to take some the wind outta Peak Oil, I worry that some less ethical leaders in suddenly overpopulated areas might decide to put it back into practice.

The analogy you make on my hypothetical Railgun flak system is a bit off. The monstrosity would be no less expensive than the present systems, it just renders the current ones useless. I think Eric might not have read the specs I posited: “Able to put up 1000s of projectiles per minute at escape velocity in a small target area.” By a small target area I mean a few fractions of an Arc second of sky. That’s an immense amount of concentrated electrical power and targeting software we’re talking about. FF makes it practicable, not cheap. Think Rommel driving a Panzer Division around back of the Maginot line and mooning the French, not IEDs. (What’s wrong with me that I typed IUDs at first?)