Re: Non Violent Weapons

At 22:09 3/10/98, Allan Goodall wrote:
>On Mon, 9 Mar 1998 20:32:15 -0600, jfoster@kansas.net (Jim 'Jiji'
>Foster) wrote:
>
>>Some time in the last six months, I read a SF short story about a war
in
>>which the US and Soviets were fighting using non-lethal weapons, due
to
>>various treaties. They used gasses, semi-toxic poison tranq guns, etc.
The
>>upshot of the story was, that in using non-lethal methodologies they
were,
>>over time, causing more lasting trauma and psychological damage than a
>>straight-up shooting war.
>>
>>Don't ask me where I read this; I've been burning through the
anthologies
>>at the rate of about 2-3/month lately.
>
>Hey, I remember this one! It might have been in one of the later
>"There Will Be War" anthologies of Pournelle's.

Bingo! and a big Net fuzzy to Alan. The story is 'Nonlethal' by D.C.
Poyer,
written specifically for the anthology _Guns Of Darkness: There Will Be
War
Vol. VI_. An interesting passage:

"In its way, the weapon he carried was the Sneekle War in microcosm: an
expensive blend of humanitarianism, violence, and high technology that
resulted in something on the very border of sanity."

Basically, the troops used paintball guns firing hollow glass ampules
loaded with a contact sleep agent, causing 18-20 hours of
unconsiousness.
Nonlethal... until one took 3 or more hits at once.

Another weapon used was psychokinesthenic gas:

"He had seen men lying rigid, catatonic after PK attacks. Their staring
eyes told of the horror that gnawed through the framework of their
minds,
bringing it crashing down. Sometimes it lasted for hours, sometimes for
weeks. And for some, forever. It was a terrible weapon.

"But it did not kill...."

Cheerful stuff, ne?

------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
Jim 'Jiji' Foster / jfoster@kansas.net / Jiji @ AnimeMUCK / TIP #28

"That's the way we all begin," said Tom Platt. "The boys they make
believe
all the time till they've cheated 'emselves into bein' men, an' so till
they die--pretendin' and pretendin'."
    Rudyard Kipling, _Captains Courageous_