I'll Just Use My Anti-Matter Phaser!

Ah, the kids at IndyMedia are at it again. Today they have figured out that all that Buck Rogers technology, like lasers that can melt metal and kill people, might actually be real!

I suppose that no one over there has ever heard of the Airborne Laser, a 747 with a laser nose cone designed to shoot down missles in flight.

Read this quote from early 2001:

The technology works in fact as well as theory. The Air Force has used a test laser on two simulated missile tanks -- one made of metal, the other made of a thick polymer mesh -- at a testing facility at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Their gaping holes bear silent proof that the proposal is more than blue-sky wishing. "Everything we have has all been based on good solid science development over the last 20 years," said Pawlikowski.

This isn't new technology. And who's to say that we couldn't mount a powerful enough laser on a tank to melt down a bus?

I'm guessing that the Dillon guy in the article hasn't exactly been keeping up with any of the advances in military technology. And I'm sure that, given the IndyMedia source here, the figures of 500 to 600 people cooked is just a wee bit on the high side.

But I don't doubt that this al-Ghazali guy might have seen a tank mounted laser in action. I wouldn't even be surprised by it. If you're the US military, why not take your new toy out for spin? Give it a test under battlefield conditions; see if it actually works.

I'm guessing that if this was some sort of new weapon and not a fanciful story, that it wouldn't be the only new one tested during the war. There are probably more than a few Iraqi soldiers sitting around in disbelief at what they saw. Same thing probably happened the first time knights met muskets.

A paradigm shift can be a painful event to witness.

IndyMedia link courtesy of Allah, the Most Merciful