monkey see monkey do

the us military tactic/strategy/policy of targeted assassination dates right back to the american revolutionary war, and timothy murphy's brilliant shot that felled british general simon fraser at the behest of american general daniel morgan during the battle of saratoga.  (murphy, with an 18th century piece and no scope whatsoever, could reliably hit a 7" target at 250 yards).  the english, of course, rather characterized it as an affront to "civilized" warfare, but it would seem that we're quite often on the cutting edge of these things and used to regularly pissing off the martial status quo.

trench warfare that was so deadly to both sides during the first world war?  the first large-scale development and deployment of the tactic was at petersburg, va during the american civil war.  (featuring 9 months of carnage across over 30 miles of entrenchments).  yeah, the maori's may have invented the tactic a few years before to hold off the english' superior firepower (and inflicted 45% casualty rates in the process--these were some bad-ass aboriginals) but, like we didn't invent the rifle, we sure knew what to do with one when an opportunistic military advantage was on offer.

these days we hardly rest on our victory laurels of having been the only nation on earth to have dropped an atomic weapon in anger (just to make sure we could compare and contrast gun-type fission weapons with implosion-type nuclear weapons we were actually compelled to drop two) so we are further perfecting various ways to rain hellfire from above.  (yes, that's a pun).  predator drones and targeted assassination have reached new pinnacles of perfection under our current military administration, (we don't even have to bother to determine if they're american citizens or even on american soil before taking them out as long as the commander in chief says that they're "terrorists", whatever that means), to the point where our acolytes and proteges around the world, to wit, the israelis these days, have taken advantage of the example to use our tech to take out their own little irritants as it pleases them.

watch the news unfold out of gaza.  palestinians are being assassinated at israeli will, and the recent murder of three israeli civilians by the woefully out-gunned hamas resistance will only hasten the witless carnage.  generally speaking, by historical measures, thousands of palestinian civilians are murdered for every dozen or so israelis, so given the further advantages of the latest weapon systems enjoyed by the one side, i'd put my money on much much more of the same before things quiet down again.

this while europe becomes engulfed in public protests over "austerity measures", which are really sops to bankers collected at the point of a gun by governments against their own people.  there will, of course, be craven spinning of this to imply it's "responsible" government against the lazy and shiftless, (did you catch mitt romney's continued whinging about the 47% the other day?), but that's not going to stop the rising tide.  (oh, did i mention melting glaciers have recently been determined to have caused 8" in ocean-level rise over the past few years, and likely to contribute another couple of feet in the next?)

my advice?

thank providence, your founding fathers, and the nra that your gun rights have been preserved to whatever extent they remain these days, and patronize your local gun shop at your earliest opportunity.  (after gaining the proper certifications of course).  hard times are ahead.