[Red October1984]

Originally Posted by Hottentot

Romanticism aside, the "old days" had the definite advantage of having a human element more strongly included. I say it's an advantage, because as long as there is the human somewhere in there, there is the risk of someone dying. And as long as there is the risk of someone dying, someone somewhere has to weigh that risk against the possible benefits gained by winning the war. Hopefully before they start it.

Imagine a situation where the human element is removed and the war is fought by droids or something similar. Replacing them is perhaps not cheap, but which is easier to sell to the public: the possibility of a financial loss on national level or the potential of losing a family member on personal level? Even if we suppose that such high tech army had somehow been acquired by a crazy dictator who doesn't have to care about the public opinion, it's still easier with the human element removed. When you run out of people, have fun waiting for about two decades for them to reproduce before you can even start training them. Whereas if you can just make more soldiers as long as you have the industrial capacity.

I for one am happy this is still just a sci-fi scenario.

Somebody's been playing Black Ops 2 lately...