Mood:
not sureTestor Models and RC were a great source of fun back in those lazy, shell shocked days of post Vietnam California. Model rockets, cox fueled model airplanes of a tether and el Supremo the fully functional radio controlled flyer. Toys are fun and toy companies have been the cutting edge researchers in materials, computer and mechanical science. Doubt it? Check out the XBox (tm) or WII (tm) and remind yourself that the venerable AR-15 and M-16 rifles were made by the same people who brought you Barbie and ken (No! I do NOT mean Auqa).
Mister Obama has inherited the country in worse more fracture condition than any time since the Civil War. It's pretty obvious that he is aware of this because instead of appealing to civil rights leaders or civil rights presidents as icons for his campaign and administration, he appealed to Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln has that cache' of the heroic civil rights leader (whether deserved or not) but he also was the decisive, and arbitrary leader of the war effort.
One might argue that Mr. Obama ought to be studying U. S. Grant's administration, because that's the man who had to deal with all the detrius AFTER the country was already fragmented and needed to be put together. One would further hope that he learns the right lessons and doesn't fall into the same authoritarian pattern of sucessive undeclared was that Grant used to keep himself in the big chair. But that is one of my famous sidebar issues.
The issue at hand is models. In 1916 we had a brand new weapon and sanity, as well as sound analyses of the strategic disadvantages,cause the West to declare a moritorium on such weapons. And Mustard Gas thus became a good thing in that it taught us to ban Chemical and biological weapons even in warfare.
In 1946 we had a new weapon, and cooler heads lost the argument and it took decades to start limiting nuclear proliferation. Now 63 years later we are gritting our teeth because someone in the middle east or Asia might show the same callus disregard for reason and science not to mention Human life that Herbert Hooverdemonstrated. (Let's remember that to date we the US have been the only ones moronic or insane enough to deploy fission weapons tactically.)
In Viet Nam we learned how to defoliate and that was just the same old Bio terrorism that was supposed to be done with after WWI. Napalm? Come on that's nothing more than an aerial assault deathcamp weapon. "Work sets you Free, man!" "Gnarley!"
Now we're apparently winding down a campaign to destroy Religiously motivated offensive geurilla warfare (code named terrorism). Though new outbreaks may give Obama his excuse for a Grantesque series of undeclared wars. Let's hope he's ethical enough to resist the urge even if it's the most politically expedient choice.
How does this relate to Matel Machine Guns and RC Airplanes? Simple we have a new weapon...
Unmanned Aerial Weapons, UAWs (the US likes to call them UAVs, 'V' for Vehicle, to try and sanitize their purpose) are the next step in disassociating a commander and a soldier from the cost in terms of humanity. But ultimately these will not be used for surveillance, they'll be loaded with bombs, even tactical nukes or bio weapons because some beamish boy wearing stars on his shoulders and splinters in his eyes thinks, "Well Duh! OUR troops aren't exposed so we can do SAFELY!"
A Stealth UAW could easily penitrate 100's of miles into the interior of a western nation anddeploy deuterium warheads, dirty bombs or antipersonnel mines. All those things the previous administration tried to terrify us with, could become a very real threat. All it takes is someone building a UAW. The answer isn't to limit access to computer components, or flying models or any of the other authoritarioan insanity that has come pouring out of washington for the last 60 years. The answer is to stop people thinking of these as weapons platforms NOW before it becomes a world wrecking problem. Like bio Weapons and nukes and oh did I mention mines...?
How do you prevent weaponizing laundry detergent? Don't add it to diesel and spray it over vast acerage and light it up.How do you prevent RC toys from bcoming weapons? Don't develop UAWs with the power to carry a payload, better still don't let the military even purchase umaned vehicles of any sort except maybe bomb disposal robots but that's risky.
Please people let's learn from our past mistakes, join me in a call for a moritorium on Unmanned Aerial Weapons. They really are the next overpowered uncontrollable doomsday weapon.
