Airborne Laser Test Successful!

[Bgile]

What is your definition of Victory? If a terrorist from London (a British citizen) blows up a city in the USA, am I then supposed to initiate a nuclear exchange with the UK? If I do that, have I achieved victory?

If I am one of the last 1,000 people left after a nuclear holocaust, have I won?

The concept of killing every person associated with someone who does you harm is one I don't believe in, but I seem to be in the minority here.

[RF]

The concept I believe is to deal with the enemy - if it is one person deal with that individual, if it is a group take out that group. If it is a country under direction of a hostile government, then firstly the government and secondly its support logistics must be taken out. All to the degree that they are no longer capable of being hostile, and no more.

[Karl Heidenreich]

I know this is utterly inmoral but let me use this to define victory:

First Punic War: Partial triumph. But the enemy came back...
Second Punic War: Partial and more severe triumph. But the enemy came back...
Third Punic War: Total victory.

May 8th, 1945: Total Victory.

That`s how I define victory.

Gulf War, 1991: not even a partial triumph. Irak and Afganistan: a draw getting every day near defeat...

[Bgile]

I know this is utterly inmoral but let me use this to define victory:

First Punic War: Partial triumph. But the enemy came back...
Second Punic War: Partial and more severe triumph. But the enemy came back...
Third Punic War: Total victory.

May 8th, 1945: Total Victory.

That`s how I define victory.

Gulf War, 1991: not even a partial triumph. Irak and Afganistan: a draw getting every day near defeat...

According to your logic, May 8th, 1945 was not total victory. There were still Germans left alive who could some day come back and fight us. If you use your logic of Iraq being a failure, we should have killed all the Germans, right?

[Karl Heidenreich]

Bgile:

According to your logic, May 8th, 1945 was not total victory. There were still Germans left alive who could some day come back and fight us. If you use your logic of Iraq being a failure, we should have killed all the Germans, right?

Nope. The German nation was not able, and is not able now, of waging war anymore against it´s neighbors. They surrendered, were demobililzed, their children traumatized in order to assure Germany never think "Prussian" again. I think Germany is banned to have their own nuclear weapons and, basically, they are a third or fourth military power as per today.

Of course there were guys like Morgentau that wanted to be even more harsh with the Germans, and I could not blame him.

Now, this scenario differs a lot from what Irak looks one hour after Georgie Bush declared as "mission accomplished".

Best regards,

[Kyler]

Just cause your not well versed in directed energy weapons doesn't mean you guys can hijack a thread.

If you don't have really anything to say or ask about laser's or other directED energy weapons, than don't post anything.

[Bgile]

Nope. The German nation was not able, and is not able now, of waging war anymore against it´s neighbors. They surrendered, were demobililzed, their children traumatized in order to assure Germany never think "Prussian" again. I think Germany is banned to have their own nuclear weapons and, basically, they are a third or fourth military power as per today.

And that is different from Iraq how? What do you think would happen if Germany went to war with Iraq?

And yes, this is way off topic.

[Karl Heidenreich]

Kyler:

Just cause your not well versed in directed energy weapons doesn't mean you guys can hijack a thread.

If you don't have really anything to say or ask about laser's or other directED energy weapons, than don't post anything.

You are right, of course. It was not done intentionally. Sorry.

[RF]

.....let me use this to define victory:

First Punic War: Partial triumph. But the enemy came back...
Second Punic War: Partial and more severe triumph. But the enemy came back...
Third Punic War: Total victory.

May 8th, 1945: Total Victory.

That`s how I define victory.

Gulf War, 1991: not even a partial triumph. Irak and Afganistan: a draw getting every day near defeat...

Well, yes. But was 1945 really a total victory? The Cold War???

[RF]

And of course Karl, the South Atlantic in 1982. Total victory in the Falklands - followed by the collapse of the Argentine junta. Now that was victory.

But the war could have been prevented in the first place, by deterrence through strength.

[Kyler]

Just cause your not well versed in directed energy weapons doesn't mean you guys can hijack a thread.

If you don't have really anything to say or ask about laser's or other directED energy weapons, than don't post anything.

RF your included in the above statement

I would rather see a thread die, than have people keep posting about things that are nothing related to its subject mater

[RF]

Having suffered exactly the same thing on my threads repeatedly over the last three years I am happy to plead guilty to this offence with a clear conscience.

[RF]

The concept of victory and what constitutes victory I would have thought would have a direct bearing on the use of high energy weaponry, particulary if applied from outer space, as I have already intimated. That is a subject area that is ill defined as yet because these weapons are only in the infancy of development, so there is no set structure to properly govern their use, either formally, or in the more dangerous area of covert use.

I suspect that the principle developer of these weapons probably won't want such a structure - until they become a target from the next power to develop them....

[lwd]

Here's another article on the laser.
http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htairw ... 00216.aspx

[Kyler]

Having suffered exactly the same thing on my threads repeatedly over the last three years I am happy to plead guilty to this offence with a clear conscience.

Hey I am guilty of it just like the rest of you guys, I have done it in this forum and on others. I try to make a good effort in not trying to hijack threads.
Though most hijacks in this forum deal with easily related subjects. I can't understand how it went from lasers to the philosophical understanding of the idea of victory.

You are correct lasers are in their infancy as a military weapon. Currently they are being used to destroy or disable weapons systems, ie: ballistic missiles, vehicles, or IED's. As the technology matures by becoming cheaper, smaller, and more powerful they will find new ways of using lasers. Boeing is the clear leader of this technology with the ABL, ATL, and recently the testing of a HUMVEE mounted with a laser to destroy IED's among other projects.