Originally Posted by
Less Hair
Would this kinetic kill by "sword" instead of a warhead have any psychological effect at all? Isn't this more about avoiding collateral damage?
At the risk of being somewhat morbid: while he was badly chopped up, his family (or their delegated representatives) should be able to pick up most of the pieces for a burial, whereas with an explosive warhead that would probably not be impossible.
There's still the psychological effect 'death from above' (on those who remain) that comes with either method.
I think that they explicitly chose that munition to reduce / avoid collateral damage. As I understand the reports, it took out the man and the balcony he was standing on.
This is a major difference from the cruise missiles launched at Afghanistan (TLAM) to try and take out some of the Al Qaeda training camps (and it unfortunately did not take out Bin Laden): that was not the kind of precision that this flying, whirling knife represents.