Depends on what you mean by conventional. I think a surgical laser might be able to do this, and certainy an industrial cutting laser could. No, you couldn't do it with a little laser pointer.
I don't buy that either. There is too much energy dissipated in the atmosphere. Look at all the difficulties they encountered with SDI. They were working with astronomical energy levels. It wasn't because it was a metal target so much as it was that they were LOSING TONS of energy in the atmosphere. At point blank range, sure, but not 5 miles out. The atmosphere is only about 60 miles deep. ICBMs were to be targeted at the very edge of that. Just that little bit of atmosphere, along with diffraction over distance, was enough to weaken their lasers by HUGE amounts.