awblain wrote:
That's one of the incongruous laws of war. My understanding is that it originates from a post-WWI ban on `blinding weapons', which was intended to prevent the recurrence of the use of gas attacks to leave thousands of infantrymen blind and lung-scarred but not dead
And I can almost imagine some obstentious official within our governments of the day (or even several millenia before) having uttered: "But PM (replace as necessary), the country couldn't possibly look after such wounded. They'd be much better off dead." Whatever WWI combatants sufferered, all the millions of them have basically disappeared by now, and we can have a more or less discrete laugh over what they accomplished.
And look forward to a new century of, uhmmm, mere propoganda in all its' forms...?!
The use of lasers to damage satellites is a straightforward act of war, no different from shooting at them with fast-moving objects. USAF Space Command must be informed, and give permission, before powerful 10W-class YAG lasers can be used to produce adaptive-optics beacons for astronomical telescopes from sites in the USA.
No, it's an act of love, not war. Or, if you prefer, fry them before they fry you. I think.