Whoops! That should have read
Now one can concieve of such that, say, can be activated and de-activated remotely. But when activated they're going to kill or wound whoever is unlucky enough to detonate them.
They've been designed and protoyped. Estimated additional cost to mines is 5%. With circuit integration improvements, perhaps less.
The people planting those mines have to give a damn. Mostly they're not Western powers. And, apparently, mostly they don't.
And there's a flaw to this scheme they probably won't like: if you can deactivate them, so can I. I just need the code or whatever. Which means all I need is a spy or traitor. Both in abundant supply in, say, Afghanistan.
So I can see why many (most?) combatants would not find your scheme attractive. Better they kill a few (sarcasm) of your own innocent civilians than fail to stop the enemy army. Because I, the dictator, can spare some of my civilians, but if your army gets through I can end up quite dead.
We could have done a bit better on cluster bombs. Estimated 10% that are unexploded. We make them the same color as the packages for food aid. Certainly by accident [no sarcasm]. But did we change the color of either the cluster bombs or food aid packages. Nah, let them Afghans take their chances. [sarcasm]
Well, d**n. Why didn't you tell them? |
