Re: [GZG] [SG] Rapid Fire antipersonnel plasma gun?

On Thursday 28 September 2006 16:23, John Atkinson wrote:
> On 9/28/06, John Lerchey <lerchey@andrew.cmu.edu> wrote:
> > Um.. religion?
> > Political agenda?
> > Racial hatred?
> >
> > Or have these been eradicated by the time humans colonize? ;)
>
> Nobody fights wars over religion or racial hatred.  They fight wars
> over economics, and use religion and race to drum up the populace.

They feed on each other. Once religion has been used as an excuse
enough times, people forget the original reasons and religion or
whatever becomes enough by itself.

> But no matter how fanatic your religion or racial creed, you can't
> physically take an armored battalion across 3,000 miles of howling
> wilderness with no way to feed, fuel, or fix the tanks.

Tanks? I'd go as far as saying they probably won't have the resources
to maintain the single tank sitting in the village square, let alone
move a battalion of them :-)

They'll hate each other, and want to rip each other's lungs out because
they wear the wrong colour scarf when praying, but not this year. This
year they have to get the crops in, fix the one surviving tractor and
put a new roof on the barn. Maybe next year (when they'll have to get
the crops in, fix the one surviving water purifier and try and remember
how to make glass to repair the greenhouse).

Eventually (with any luck), their grandchildren will have forgotten
who they hated and why, and when the two colonies finally meet, they'll
find all new reasons to hate each other :-(

There *could* be something they need to fight over, such as control
of a bean stalk, or the single known uranium mine. A planet with an
unfriendly ecology might also have scarce resources (pure water,
fertile soil, a hot spot on a cold world), but generally most reasons
to fight will probably be dictated from above (homeworld sees the
colony as having strategic importance, and doesn't want any unfriendly
colonists there). This will of course totally change the nature of
the battle and the resources available.

-- 
Be seeing you,			       http://www.glendale.org.uk
Sam.			    Mail/IM (Jabber): sam@glendale.org.uk 
_______________________________________________
Gzg-l mailing list
Gzg-l@lists.csua.berkeley.edu
http://lists.csua.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/gzg-l