"The basic rules of engagement are always engage lethal force with lethal force of a greater degree. I don't see anything in this argument to counter that principal. What I see is a better way to control a non lethal force encounter."
Understand what your reply means. Perhaps I jumped the gun a bit on this one. But in my mind I don't equate crowd control in the states the same way I do in the Sunni Triagle where anyone male or female can be carrying a conceled weapon. That is the point I guess I should have stressed.
In Sadr city sector of Baghdad for instance, you have perhaps a 100,000 youth carrying guns etc..
I have no problem with the gun being used in non lethal crowd control. I have a problem on it being used on crowds that are dangerous. And in my mind I immediately think, OK,
once it is an established practice by the coalition forces to primarily use the "heat gun", as a primariy tool to disperse crowds, I immediately think, OK, American, aim the gun in the crowd, make us jump as we open up on you with small arms fire, knowing you cannot shoot back with anything lethal, we will take out a few dozen of you real quick, and since your other personel that acccompany you cannot fire into crowds with real bullets, we will win this little battle against you. We win, because we had the sense to carry loaded firearms and use them against you when you cannot fire back. That is my fear for our guys.
Less than lethal force. Just because the one Humvee has the heat ray on the crowd doesn't mean the two behind it don't have machine guns.
When the police use bean bag rounds they use a cover officer with a real gun. When the military deals with a large crowd of possible hostiles it would be only common sense to have your lethal force option ready. I remember when they went in during the invasion and a crowd gathered in front of some big holy site. The officer had his men stop and immediately drop to one knee. The crowd was stunned. It was something they didn't expect and the press there didn't know how to cover it. There was no confrontation. The Muslim leaders and the officer talked and the crowd did not become hostile. That was a smart use by the Officer. But if you look at it from another way those soldiers had their weapons ready and were facing out in an arrowhead formation to engage any threat.
Fight smart. Get the people on your side. Identify and kill the bad guys. I so respect the military for fighting this smart.