Read more @ Wired.com
...Peasant here....
OK, look. I know Noah Shachtman is a (presumably) well-paid, well-connected journalist working for a respected media outlet, and I am a nobody blogger with no connections doing this for free. So take it for what it's worth, but if you think these guys are just working out the kinks now and will have some trouble rustling up $100 million to "get it right," take another hit off that crack pipe.
Here's a little sample of my laser library. Click through some of the links in these posts to see what I mean. When I wrote this stuff, the Pentagon showed up in my stats, and I had about 3 readers at the time. So what does that tell you?
Who Killed Benazir Bhutto? 3/1/08
Use Your Imagination 1/8/08
Laser Technology 1/5/08
A Laser Beam? 1/4/08
Excerpt from Laser Technology:
JOURNALIST: Mr. Secretary, can I ask you a question about some of the technology that you’re developing to fight the war on terrorists, specifically directed energy and high-powered microwave technology? Do you—when do you envision that you can weaponize that type of technology?
DONALD RUMSFELD: Goodness, it is in—for the most part, the kinds of things you’re talking about are in varying early stages. Do you want to—do you have anything you would add?
GEN. RICHARD MYERS: I don’t think I would add much. I think they are in early stages and probably not ready for employment at this point.
DONALD RUMSFELD: In the normal order of things, when you invest in research and development and begin a developmental project, you don’t have any intention or expectations that one would use it. On the other hand, the real world intervenes from time to time, and you reach in there and take something out that is still in a developmental stage, and you might use it. So the—your question’s not answerable. It is—it depends on what happens in the future and how well things move along the track and whether or not someone feels it’s appropriate to reach into a development stage and see if something might be useful, as was the case with the unmanned aerial vehicles.
JOURNALIST: But you sound like you’re willing to experiment with it.
GEN. RICHARD MYERS: Yeah, I think that’s the point. And I think—and it’s—we have, I think, from the beginning of this conflict—I think General Franks has been very open to looking at new things, if there are new things available, and has been willing to put them into the fight, even before they’ve been fully wrung out. And I think that’s—not referring to these particular cases of directed energy or high-powered microwave, but sure. And we will continue to do that.
I don’t know how you read that, but to me it sounds like these gentlemen had no qualms about using live human beings as guinea pigs for their cool new weapons toys that US taxpayers pony up a half a billion dollars a year to develop.
Think of it this way. If someone parked a Lamborghini in your driveway, left the keys in the ignition, and passed out in a drunken stupor on your couch at 3am, would you take the car out for a spin? Just around the block for shits and giggles?
Oh, and by the way, you’re a cop. Does that help you decide?
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