Re: When was the turning point in technology's impact on war?

From: nospam (nospam_at_nospam.net)
Date: 01/29/05 

To: sci-military-moderated@moderators.isc.org
Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2005 19:38:29 -0800

Roger Moore wrote:
> hoarse with no name <no2@spam.com> writes:
>
>
>>It is clear that at some point in history the likelihood of the more
>>backward side in a military conflict coming out the victor became
>>extraordinarily low. None of us expects modern Israel to lose a war and
>>none of us are surprised that ancient Israel lost so many. At some point
>>the military advantages gained by education, technology and general
>>"advancement" became too great. My reading of history would put the
>>turning point at roughly 1500. Does the news group agree?
>
>
> I'm not sure that you can divide things so neatly. I think that
> technology is just an additional kind of advantage in the same way that
> numbers, morale, terrain, etc. are. A technological advantage can make
> up for a disadvantage in some other area, but the opposite is true, too;
> a large enough advantage in other areas can nullify even an impressive
> technological advantage.
>
> Consider the Vietnam war, for instance. The U.S.A. undoubtedly had a
> large technological advantage, and even had an advantage in total
> manpower, but the North Vietnamese still wound up winning because they
> used the terrain (both physical and political) to their advantage and had
> a better grasp of their mission. The same thing seems to have happened in
> a number of other guerilla wars, like the Soviet invasion of Afganistan,
> the U.S. intervention in Somalia, etc.
>
> --
> Roger Moore | Master of Meaningless Trivia | (raj@alumni.caltech.edu)
> I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the
> people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by
> violent and sudden usurpations. -- James Madison

I would say that the North Vietnamese victory had as much to
do with lack of political will on the home front in the USA
as it did with use of terrain.

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