I can see this awesome weapon being invaluable in the Middle East conflicts. I just don't know whether we have the stomach to use them in any real sense.

We already have an enormous arsenal of weapons but we don't use them because of one thing: our gripping fear that we might hit someone classified as a non-combatant and we don't want the negative press our enemies would most certainly heap upon us. Instead, we walk the streets to draw fire, returning fire IF we can get a consensus that the enemy fire was witnessed and that he is still holding the weapon. Then and only then will we return fire. Obviously, this shotgun is ineffective because it doesn't assure that no non-combatant in the vicinity of the enemy shooter will be hit.

Do I sound cynical? I am!

I hear you, but aren't you exaggerating a little? We do return fire if we are sure where it is coming from.

That is the BIG IF. I am sure you haven't forgotten political uproars that followed when someone claimed "innocent" civilians were killed by Marines who swore they returned fire after seeing gun flashes from a window. Some have even been tried! Would you fire if you understood the political risk you were taking?

Good points. It is still an awesome weapon and I am glad we have it. I just hope we don't let the military contractor who developed it sell it to Iran, Korea or another unfriendly and then find it in the hands of our enemies in Iraq.

it always seems to work that way. we get a weapon and have the upper hand, then our enemy gets it and we are even again, then we get a bigger weapon and so on.

That is the way the world has been since the beginning of time, Karen. It is utopian to think that will ever change. And if we want to maintain at least a measure of peace in the world, we need to wield the firepower to hold rogue nations at bay. To do that, we must demonstrate that we have the will and the means to enforce the peace.

it seems to me that we are just making other nations want to arm themselves to protect themselves from us. if we have weapons, they want weapons. how can we say it is ok for us to have weapons but not them? and if we all have bigger and bigger weapons, how do we ever achieve peace?

We are demonstrating now that we want peace in the Middle East. But we need to begin rapping it up, and that will take not only superior weaponry but the will to use it to end the daily conflict. That is where we are dragging our feet because we have let politicians into the war room. Their misuse of the information they are given for political purposes is destructive to our mission, keeps our soldier's hands tied and costs us lives.

Your desire for everyone to be equal and all play fair is unrealistic and impossible to achieve. The U.S. uses weapons to maintain or achieve peace. Some countries use weapons to gain territory and to oppress their citizens, most notably until the end of WWII but continuing in parts of the world today. As a super power, it is our responsibility to try to minimize such oppression.

We better hope gangs don't get their hands on these!

What an awesome piece of weaponry! I hope it is soon in the hands of our fighting forces and helps bring this war to an end.

Wow! I am speechless!