Sky Captain and the War Crimes of Tomorrow

The last time the Geneva Conventions breached the ocean of the War on Terra, they spouted a good blow about warfare against civilian populations.

Of particular interest is Article 3 in Part I:

1. Persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms and those placed hors de combat by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause, shall in all circumstances be treated humanely, without any adverse distinction founded on race, colour, religion or faith, sex, birth or wealth, or any other similar criteria.

To this end, the following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever with respect to the above-mentioned persons:

(a) Violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture;

(b) Taking of hostages;

(c) Outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment;

(d) The passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court, affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples.

Such a lovely article in such a fine Part. No wonder John Bolton hates those Swiss Frenchmen. No wonder Bu$hCo is working so hard to blur the line between civilian and soldier, between combatant and non-combatant.

In the War on Terra we not only ferry around Terra'ists on "civilian" owned transportation ("Aero Contractors Ltd.", "Pegasus Technologies", and "Tepper Aviation"), we develop arms that can only be used effectively against civilian populations. We also develop arms that we can place on civilian air carriers.

What am I talking about? There's a technology that hasn't been really useful in warfare since before World War I. It's Blimps.

The blimp is made to sound really far cooler and more high tech by saying ...that there would be "military utility" in putting blimps, balloons, and drones in near space -- between 65,000 and 350,000 above sea level. That means 'way high up there for you pedestrian Terra'ists. Up there, they could serve as cheap substitutes for satellites, relaying communications and snooping on foes. They might be able to carry equipment, effectively becoming giant U-Hauls in the sky. And this could be done, at least in the balloons' case, without "significantly strain[ing] existing infrastructure or requir[ing] large amounts of equipment or personnel to operate the balloons"...

People stopped using these ballons because, you know, they pop. Apparently the metals they use to contain the helium are good enough now that only a missile could penetrate. That is, only a seriously state-armed force with real guns could knock them down.

Which means they will probably be of more use in situations where the D.o'D. has to pacify relatively unarmed "insurgents".

They're made for UnWar. Like Iraq.

The other nifty Rumsfeldian (i.e., Strangelovian) idea is to put lasers on all civilian air carriers, presumbly to protect them from Terra'ist shouldler-fired missiles.

Not a serious threat unless you're Aero Contractor charter flight out of Baghdad, but hey, Rummy's buddies like Northrop Grumman think every civilian carrier should have them.

Frenchmen like the Air Line Pilots Association, Boeing and the Air Transport Association of America are urging that more emphasis be placed on alternative defenses, like controlling areas around airports, limiting the international supply of missiles and making less expensive changes that would allow an airplane to fly even if its hydraulic system was lost.

So what happens when you place laser weapons aboard a civilian carrier? What happens when all of the American Civilian Air Fleet have laser weapons effective in a 50 mile radius around the airplane?

Do they cease to be noncombatants?