catapult magazine

The U.S. just dropped the biggest non-nuclear bomb in existence in Florida somewhere. From an AP report: “Defense officials suggested the test was a message to Iraq ahead of a possible war about the might of the U.S. military”.
Does this seem to be sophomoric military posturing? Isn’t this an American rehash of the flexing the Soviets and Chinese engaged in during the cold war?
“It did what it was supposed to do” said a Defense Department official. What was that? Blow up alligators? Is that why it was developed?
This bothers me. More than I thought it would. Maybe more than it should.

It might seem sophomoric, but our government is very calculated about what it does. By dropping leaflets telling Iraqis how to surrender to americans that’s actually saving lives on both sides.

The phychological aspects of warfare can not be overstated. In WWI, something like only 20% of the soldiers actually fired their weapon. The rest were too scared. Also, they trained on dart board-like targets. When they had a human form in their cross-hairs, they wouldn’t pull the trigger b/c they were trained to shoot at bulls-eyes.
Now we shoot at human silhouettes in target practice. The percentage of soldiers who freeze up in combat is much less. (on a tangent, many of the army’s trained killing techniques are a primary part of many video games)

There’s certainly boundaries of what’s kosher for phychological warfare, but I personally don’t object to good old-fashioned intimidation. I’d rather fight a scared and confused enemy. God often told the Israelites that he would bring fear and confusion into the enemy’s camp and deliver them. Obviously we have to be careful w/ OT analogies. My basic point, though, is that phychological warfare is valid.

Saddam recently gave out thousands of dollars to Palestinian widows and families whose men had been killed in Israeli conflict. What a big-hearted guy. Phychological/political warfare?

I understand that psychological warfare is a big part of warfare. I just don’t think Americans see the whole picture. When Korea starts posturing and holding military parades a’ la Beijing, I hope we can see it as just as “acceptable” as dropping a big-ass bomb on some saw grass.