[Peace-discuss] tech talk

[C. G. Estabrook]

[With apologies to Doug...  --CGE] 

One can't help but empathize with the shock felt at the horrifying sniper
killings that have been occurring around the [Washington] Beltway since
late last week.  The diabolic sniper's shot at a child will no doubt be
one among many low milestones in the annals of serial killing.

Many LRC writers have done a good job at pointing out how many
international problems currently finding their way to the U.S. doorstep
are actually the result of what is known as blowback (the law of
unintended consequences applied to foreign policy).  While the valuable
lessons of foreign-policy blowback remain as foreign as ever to Beltway
elites, their small culpability in the recent sniper attacks is sure to
escape their notice as well.  Let's connect some dots.

There's more than a little irony in the disgust of career politicians,
bureaucrats, and law enforcement officials in their reaction to the
grotesque damage being wrought by the .223-caliber bullets that have hit
seven civilians in the sniper attacks (so far). Once upon a time in the
early 1960s, the military-industrial complex centered in Washington D.C.
was the very institution that initiated the practice of using relatively
small, high-speed projectiles (like the .223-caliber bullet) in infantry
small arms. The embodiment of this initiative was the Colt AR-15 (later
M-16), which came of age and was first widely used by U.S. infantry in the
Vietnam Conflict. It was developed from prototypes created by small-arms
designer Eugene Stoner while he was employed at the Armalite Corporation.
Previous infantry issue (the M-1 Garand prominent in World War II, the M-1
Carbine, and the M-14 prominent in Korea to name a few examples) fired
relatively large, .30-caliber full-metal-jacket bullets which (under
"humane" conventions of war--the oxymoron!) entered tissue and exited with
relatively moderate damage provided that vital organ areas were not
closely broached. . .

The military establishment stuck with the .223 round.  Though problematic
in thick jungle conditions, it was useful in open field (snow to desert)
and some urban conditions in that it was very accurate, but better yet,
when it hit human targets it tumbled forward into tissue and shattered
creating large, internal wounds. This was confirmed in later tests on
special gels that simulated the consistency of human tissue. Another "nice
touch" was that the bullet would sometimes ricochet off bone and bounce
around inside the body, shattering in tiny hard-to-remove fragments (which
promoted internal bleeding) and ripping sizable hunks of internal tissue
away (for good measure).

Thus what was nominally a full-metal-jacket bullet had in effect roughly
the same destructive capability as some hollow- or soft-point bullets. The
letter of the Hague agreements (at least until 1985) was technically
followed although the spirit of the agreements seemed to have been
violated. . .

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig/steinreich6.html