Don't discount the disabled.

Post #9,470 by marlowe 9/17/01 2:00:52 PM Reply	Don't discount the disabled. One nice thing about high tech is it makes physical disability less relevant to one ability to contribute in society. Or even in war. For better or worse, war is going high tech. You don't have to be able to walk in order to push a button. Paraplegic? Give him an armor plated motorized wheelchair with gun mount. Quadriplegic? Put his brain in a jar and wire it up to a tank. The next phase in the evolution of war: Daleks! [link\|http://www.angelfire.com/ca3/marlowe/index.html\|http://www.angelfir...e/index.html]
Post #9,472 by inthane-chan 9/17/01 2:05:07 PM Reply	Cost effectiveness. How many grunts could you field for the cost of making that armored wheelchair? "He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche
Post #9,478 by marlowe 9/17/01 2:21:57 PM Reply	Grunts indeed. If we try to armor the foot soldiers as heavily as we can armor that wheelchair, they'll be grunting all right. And groaning. And keeling over from heart attacks. [link\|http://www.angelfire.com/ca3/marlowe/index.html\|http://www.angelfir...e/index.html]
Post #9,482 by inthane-chan 9/17/01 2:37:22 PM Reply	The tech mistake. Y'see, give 2-3 grunts AP missile launchers, and fit the rest with standard weapons, no armor. I can almost guarantee you that you'll be able to field 10-20x more people... Armor is great. Armor is nifty. Armor is useless without infantry support, and costs buckets too. Designing an armored tank for people with disabilities is a nifty idea, but would cost $$$ that could outfit a heck of a lot more people without disabilities to be just as effective. And right now, manpower is a lot cheaper than manufactured goods. Was it here that I saw the comment on 2-3x F-5s versus 1 F-16? Where 3 F-5s = 1 dead F16, and F-5s cost 1/5 of an F-16? "He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche
Post #9,473 by inthane-chan 9/17/01 2:05:20 PM Reply	Cost effectiveness. How many grunts could you field for the cost of making that armored wheelchair? "He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche
Post #9,491 by wharris2 9/17/01 3:30:19 PM Reply	A bit of a clarification Disabled people certainly can serve the military in non-combat positions - they undoubtedly would like all the computer programmers, scientists, designers, etc. they can recruit. But the armored wheelchair.... nawwwwww. Or was that more irony? Rest in peace, Jeremy, Mark, Thomas, and whoever else who helped overpower the hijackers on Flight 93.
Post #9,495 by Fearless Freep 9/17/01 3:36:08 PM Reply	Not really Disabled people certainly can serve the military in non-combat positions - they undoubtedly would like all the computer programmers, scientists, designers, etc. they can recruit. I was a computer programmer in the military. Several of the people from my unit were deployed as computer support to Saudi Arabia during Desert Storm. Even though your AFSC may say "Computer Programmer", you may be called upon, and often are even in non-wartime to do a lot more than just write code. FWIW - I'm also M-16 qualified; not a typicla job skill for a programmer Jay O'Connor "Going places unmapped to do things unplanned to people unsuspecting"
Post #9,494 by Steven A S 9/17/01 3:32:15 PM Reply	That wouldn't be the proper use for them Though there is no reason they couldn't work in factories or whatever like the women did in the last WW. Those positions will need to be filled since the women (at least some of them) will be fighting alongside us in this one. ~~~)-Steven----

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