Unusual uses for tools of war

China reached into its quiver in the last few hours to use wartime weapons for a peaceful purpose.

Soldiers fired four missiles at boulders to smash them and clear the way for a sluice channel to drain dangerous Tangjiashan lake, the swelling body of water in Sichuan province that is imperiling some 1.3 million quake-stricken people living downstream.

The lake finally began to drain over the weekend. But this morning’s China Daily said the lake is filling from new rains faster than it is draining.

The newspaper says engineers may drop underwater explosives in the channel to deepen it.

Meanwhile, in another only slightly related matter dealing with a weird type of weapon, Germany’s Spiegel Online reports that China has bought U.S.-made items known as long-range acoustic devices _ or “sonic blasters” _ that could be deployed against protesters during the Olympics.

The blasters are mounted atop vehicles and emit an ear-splitting sound louder than a jet engine or gun blast. The painfully loud blast can be aimed at protesters, making them scatter and run.

The device is made by San Diego-based American Technology Corp. Here’s more from Spiegel Online:

It was used to ward off pirates in 2005 by a cruise ship sailing near the coast of Somalia. And was used to disperse pro-democracy demonstrators in Tbilisi last November, where Human Rights Watch said it precipitated panic among the crowd.

ATC's Robert Putnam argues that, "since LRAD is a communications system, we are not subject to export control lists." But the Commerce Department may soon decide to see things differently.

The Commerce Department review is motivated, in part, by concerns that US-manufactured security equipment -- from closed-circuit television to vehicles -- will be abused by the Chinese police and security forces in repressing internal dissent and peaceful protests, particularly during the Olympic Games.

So keep your eyes out for fleeing protesters during the Games. If security forces are found to be using devices with “Made in the U.S.A.” tags, it could turn out to be a bigger problem for Washington than Beijing.

After all, since 1989 Washington has kept export controls on most military, crime control and detection equipment to China, fearing it might be used on civilians.

Comments

[A B]

Would it turn into a big problem for the US if it turns out that American beef (possibly infected with BSE) are tossed at protesters?

Or what about American eggs?

Then there are American tomatoes, which everyone know is laced with unsafe pesticide residuals.

Got to ban those dangerous exports from the US.

[Junhui]

Hrmm...I guess we gotta see this in an optimistic view..I rather be blasted with a sonic blaster than a gun. I think we would all agree.

The sheer fact that China wants to use a non-lethal way of dispersing protesters is really something to be happy about. Either that or they can use fire-hydrants like the United States did. Or go back to guns...

So ultimately this is a question of Lethal Guns vs Non-Lethal Sonic Weapon, which would you prefer?

@AB
Funny you mention tomatoes. I was at a local Red Robin Burger Restaurant the other day, they refused to serve tomatoes because of an salmonella scare. I think thats the third salmonella scare this year in the United States.

Last year, we had that salmonella scare with spinach. Our veggies are unsafe here in the States!!!!!

Ultimately this brings us down to the next question: Lead or Salmonella? You just can't win.

[A B]

If you go to a Britney Spears concert, the sonic weapons are pretty lethal and cause long term hearing loss.

And you Americans want to export all this spinach, tomatoes, etc. to China to kill them?

Got to take a South Korean attitude to this stuff and start banning them.

NO American BSE Beef in China!

[PaZhuLian]

C'mon Tim. At least do some research before naming military hardware. That's not a missile launcher even those it did look like one. But I agree with you, I wouldn’t want to stare into the barrel of such thing if dispersing crowd was indeed one of its “peaceful purposes” and I was part of the crowd.

http://www.sinodefence.com/army/crewserved/type78recoillessgun120mm.asp

[Relax]

China welcomes u with open arms to live there, and as a guest you keep on bashing your own host. This is rude

[A B]

Um... well, if he mis-identified the weapon....

Then I would have to put a not about how the Recoilless Gun is obsolete for most militaries, being supplanted with Guided Anti-Tank Missiles at the top end, and by relatively cheap high end RPGs at the low end.

The sole exception will be the Carl Gustav Recoilless Rifle, which is useful in close in urban combat basically for making holes in walls of regular houses, but not bunkers.

Believe it or not, some decommissioned Recoilless Rifles are used to set off avalanches.

[Junhui]

Um, why does it really matter what weapon it is? I don't think Tim was doing any China bashing in this article.

He only stated that a weapon was used for peaceful purposes. The only thing that can remotely seen as China bashing is the sonic weapon. Which hardly qualifies as a good bash.

For the folks that are confused, 3 weapons were mentioned in this article. Some type of missile launcher, an underwater bomb and a audio weapon. Only the audio weapon would be used to disperse crowds...at least thats what a logical person would assume.

[A B]

@Junhui

Tim just have to step inside a telephone booth, change into his cape, and get a dose of Kryptonite to meet the needs of some of the more demanding people on here.

[Tim J]

PaZhuLian, please bring up your complaint with both Xinhua and CCTV 9, which are both referring to that device as a "missile." I'm no expert on what that weapon might be but it doesn't strike me as unreasonable that something that small could be considered a missile. After all, shoulder-fired SAM missiles bring down aircraft and they look to be about that size.

[A B]

@Tim,

It's OK, you, and CCTV, and Xinhua are all forgiven.....

After all, you come from the country that the USS Vincennes comes from:

They misidentified Iran Air Flight 655, an Airbus A-300, as an F-14 Tomcat Fighter.

You mistake, in comparison, is below trivial.

[A B]

Story suggestion:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/10/nyregion/10internet.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

You may be interested in 3 major ISPs: Sprint, Verizon and and Time Warner Cable is taking the first steps for censorship in the US.

We talk about the great firewall of China, but now the US is doing the same.

True, the content blocked is different, but the effect is the same....

So much for net neutrality...

In the land the Internet is founded in, there is no more neutrality.

[James Cochran]

The soldier appears to be wearing tennis shoes.

[A B]

Well, it is the "people's" army!

If it were the US Army, the soldier might be wearing heels.

[Wilbur Varela]

A B, would those soldiers in heels be the ones with all the combat experience, who give their lives so other people can be free?

and by combat I don't mean shooting students and tibetans.

As for the ISP comments about net neutrality, "..the content blocked is different, but the effect is the same..."

blocking child porn is very different than blocking the words freedom, liberty and democracy.

Although the CCP party official over at the ministry in charge of censorship might agree with you.

[LBSH]

@WVarela

Yes, your solders give their lives so we can be free of our resources, pride, and independence.

[James Cochran]

A US soldier would be wearing boots.

[Pffefer]

Varela,

I have a lot of respect for the US military and the average soldier, but the notion that the US military fight just to free others is ludicrous. Without interests, the US military wouldn't be fighting anybody.

[Wilbur Varela]

I also have a lot of respect for the soldiers of the PLA, and watching them carry little old ladies out of the quake zone brings a lump to the throat.

While Bush and his war criminal friends might have interests, as you put it, many of my friends who serve as soldiers do so out of a belief in freedom, and a feirce desire to give back to this country,
however out of vogue that might sound.

[Junhui]

Tiering the internet is the first step in control over the internet. In its perfection, you would not even be aware that you were blocked.

@Varela
"and by combat I don't mean shooting students and tibetans."
Har har? Would you rather be shooting Iraqi citizens and black people?

[David Lloyd-Jones]

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"Sonic blaster," eh?

Would that be anything like Bull Connor's water cannons?

-dlj.


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[David Lloyd-Jones]

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Just to add to the previous: there is a decent way for public authorities to handle protests. You meet with the protest leaders beforehand, you agree on routes and rules, you agree on the armbands or other identification to be worn by the protesters' own monitors, and then you hold meetings and rehearsals with your own police to train them to protect the protesters from undisciplined citizens.

This works. Most of the other stuff doesn't.



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