From: wkmahler@mahlers.com   
      
   Nonlethality Headlines & Recommendations   
      
   © 2003 Chris Morris & Janet Morris   
      
      
      
   All War Is Now Local   
   ? In the twenty-first century, as a consequence of the fall of the Soviet   
   Union and the rise of CNN, the internet and globalization, terrorists and   
   rogue entities, often pan-national, are waging symbolic warfare against   
   modernity.  Structures emblematic of globalizing influence are the high   
   value targets of techno-powered barbarism.  The plight of Western-modeled   
   Israel, locked in an asymmetric struggle with an enemy expert in symbolic   
   warfare, points to the fate awaiting pluralistic societies unable to address   
   or adapt to the symbolic warfare mindset, and the tactics and strategies of   
   those who have no centralized economic infrastructure, no geographic   
   holdings at risk.  This war is here, now, and because of the reach of global   
   media, everywhere is a lot closer to home than it used to be.   
      
    We face groups loosely knit by ideological affinities, more discrete and   
   difficult to track than religious bias or political allegiance: the groups   
   can be anywhere; they recognize each other's goals of destruction of an   
   embryonic world economy in which they cannot compete and of a rule of law   
   that they do not wish to apply to them.  They must be overcome by measures   
   capable of disarming, disheartening and demoralizing them, not solely by a   
   strategy of eradication.  Mere death and destruction wreaked by the West   
   accrue to this enemy's benefit, proving their thesis that annihilation is   
   still King in all struggles for earthly power and that massive projections   
   of power are the hallmark of the great Satan.   
      
    All war is local now.  And now we all must prepare to counter these   
   transient adversaries in all their shapes and guises where we live, and in   
   the process preserve what we value most: our families, our beliefs, our   
   freedoms, our institutions, and our future. To do so effectively we will   
   need to create and utilize technological means and measures suited for use   
   here, where we live ? means that are life and property conserving,   
   environmentally friendly, and fiscally responsible.  Such promising means   
   are being researched and developed by the Department of Defense under the   
   rubric of nonlethal weapons, although to date only scant funding has been   
   applied.  It is important that this fledgling effort reach its   
   congressionally directed goal of coordinating all efforts aimed at providing   
   additional rheostatic force projection capabilities to contain conflict and   
   destruction while conserving life.   
      
      
      
   Breaking the Cycle of Retributive Violence Nonlethally   
      
   ? Whenever we strike lethally, we risk making those who resort to terror   
   stronger. Whenever we amputate a tentacle of terror, the forges of   
   fanaticism are fanned.  We play into a strategy of our adversaries who wish   
   to portray us as no better than cornered beasts, lashing out with no regard   
   for whom or what we destroy ? just like them.  They use this portrayal to   
   inflame their constituents, attract new support, and justify their calls for   
   more and more extreme acts of retaliation.  To win in this conflict we must   
   break this cycle, change the rules, and set new criteria for ultimate   
   victory based on our strength ? on our regard for life, liberty and the   
   pursuit of happiness.  As we move against terror we must begin to signal our   
   ultimate intent by the way we use force, lest we become terror's patsies ?   
   or worse, its mimics.   
      
    We possess undeniable, overwhelming lethal capability.  And our adversary   
   this time out is counting on us to overdo it in our efforts to eradicate   
   him, to adopt overkill as our standard operating procedure and provide him   
   endless rolls of martyrs with which to brainwash his young and fill his   
   zombie ranks to overflowing.  To deny him this advantage and undermine and   
   defeat his strategy, we must complete our warfighting capacity by filling an   
   historic deficiency in warfighting options.   
      
    To our overwhelming lethal capacity we must add a final tier of no less   
   overwhelming nonlethal capabilities to use when closing with an enemy amidst   
   innocents ? especially our own. We must set a goal of being decisively   
   nonlethal if need be, destroying an adversary's ability to harm us while   
   minimizing harm to those around him as we do so.   By completing our panoply   
   of coercive responses we will increase the dimensions of victory and   
   ultimately break the senseless cycle of retributive violence.   
      
      
      
   Stop Killing the Customer:   
      
   Open Trade Networks vs. Closed Fanatical Networks   
      
   ? The world's economies are globalizing, far flung economic interests   
   working cheek by jowl together around the planet via analog and virtual   
   networks. These fragile networks must be defended against those who find   
   capitalism and the challenges of competing in a world economy too terrifying   
   to contemplate, and whose economic consumption model is currently   
   conflict-based.   
      
    The civilizing world no longer gets to keep what it conquers; it pays   
   reconstruction costs to rebuild and restore to economic function those it   
   damages. To the globalizing financial networks there are no enemies, only   
   competitors rushing to market and customers climbing toward preferred   
   trading status.  For the global trade model, wars of attrition are   
   economically digressive and disruptive.   
      
    Rogue military states or terror networks on the other hand want to keep   
   what they can take, and pay can no heed to rule of law.  For their model,   
   the soft symbolic infrastructure targets of trade are too tempting to   
   resist.   
      
    Targets of opportunity for the rogue are myriad, as are business   
   opportunities for the emergent 24/7 virtual world trading establishment.   
   Let us use every means at our disposal, including nontraditional, nonlethal,   
   and Mass Protection technologies, capabilities and responses to safeguard   
   the planet's trade and production systems and avoid killing tomorrow's   
   customers.   
      
      
      
   How Will We Know When We're Winning?   
      
   ? Nonlethal Responses for A World in Which Death Creates Martyrs and   
   Destruction Creates Heroes   
      
   ? Can we destroy an enemy's war-making fervor by destroying his war-making   
   capability?  Certainly.  How?  With weapons that sterilize and destroy his   
   chemical and biological capabilities?  Of course. With microbes that eat his   
   microbes?  Certainly.  With energy weapons to drive his warfighters from   
   their posts?  Positively.  Can we build a set of responses that will prevent   
   him from launching explosives against us, or prevent the detonation of those   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)