Re: Crowbars, etc.

>William Spencer wrote:
>> I recall that in Heinlein's Starship Troopers (and other
stories by other
>> people), they explained that the mobile infantry were the arm
of restraint -
>> sure, you could pulverize the planet from orbit, but if you
want the
>> industry intact, or to teach the population a lesson (but not
eliminate
>> them), or whatever, you send in the marines.

Nyrath wrote:
> Heinlein put it this way:
> "You don't spank a baby with an axe."
>
> He also noted that the Mobile Infantry made war
> "as personal as a punch in the nose", as opposed to
> the impersonal warfare of the space navy.

OTOH, a prominent citizen was challenged by a gunslinger,
whereupon citizen shot the challenger in the back.  When asked
his reason, citizen said "He's dead, I'm alive, that's the way I
wanted it to be."
I could see impersonally dropping antimatter on the
German-analog planet if I was the Belgian-analog planet at the
beginning of WW2-analog.