Re: Medtch 2180

At 12:42 AM 12/20/99 -0500, you wrote:
>Besides, I don't buy the idea that a troopie with his legs missing will
be
>up and going in a few days - I think much more likely that treatment
will
>be more along the lines of what the PA soldiers in "The Ten Thousand
Year
>War" got - main character lost a limb, the suit stabilized him, he
shipped
>back to rehab world where new limb grown BUT it took weeks/months of
>regrowth and dexterity therapy before he was "combat ready" again.  In
this
>kind of case, sure the LONG TERM survival of the badly hurt goes up
LOTS,
>but in the short term (the days or weeks of these short, sharp
campaigns)
>he is out of the fight - and tieing up medical resources, etc.  

I think as you and otehr point out there will be serious emotional
consequences to being rebuilt or put back in a new body and then being
sent
back out. I mean, it still hurts to get blown up even in the 2190s I
suppose? <grin> I think it can be quite a detriment to know you are
fighting/working for an organization that now has even less concern for
your well being than it did before since it knows youa re utterly
expendable.

>An odd idea here, following this line of thinking:  if the medical
>technology develops to the point that they can fix nearly anything, and
the
>weapon technology develops in response to the point that the objective
is
>to destroy then enemy utterly with each hit, doesn't that kind of
change
>the psychology of war a bit?  Now (here in 1999), we want to win, and
>though there will be soldiers who want to whack the enemy dead, not
many
>(well, actually none) of the soldiers I know really WANT to KILL the
other
>guys.	That may be part of the job, but they don't specifically want to
do
>it.  

Well when we fight we are out to kill the other guy, not wound him or
nick
him in the leg so he'll surrender. Sure know one really sets out to join
the military to be a killer but it is esentially one of the unspoken
purposes or means to an end, even if people don't admit it or whatever. 

>If the weaponry becomes such that a hit equals a kill, and killing
>utterly (like, no chance of regen) becomes a necessary part of winning,
>then is it not a short step to "well, if we have to kill him utterly to
>win, then why not whack his family as well so there aren't going to be
any
>more of him...".   

Yes the entire slippery slope of this discussion is pretty much summed
up
right there. Even though that has always been a goal (official or
unofficial) stated or unstated of wars where the extermination of one
race/nation/culture now it's much more clearer. Of course if you are
fighting another race (meaning aliens) then getting your society
fighting
to extermination  is easier to manage then if it's an intraspecies
fight(though with the right propaganda it can be managed.)

Los