Since Dave Appel yelled this at Steve Henderson, I hollered this in response:
 -> Hammers are designed to drive nails.  Just because they've also been
 -> used to commit homicide takes nothing from their designed function.
 DA> Right.  But if you are attacked and your life is threatened, and all
 DA> you got is a hammer, whatcha gonna do?
WTF are you going to do, blow your house down because of -one- pesky fly?
This -is- what you are advocating.
 DA> Out in the field what really counts is what it CAN do, not what it was
 DA> "designed" to do.  If a piece of equipment CAN do something that it
 DA> was not "intended" to do, and if doing it saves the lives of YOUR men,
 DA> then so be it.  The lives of men on your side, and the lives of
 DA> innocents, are more important than equipment, and even more important
 DA> than what a book says about your equipment.
Again, WTF are you going to do?  Use a 155 as a flyswatter?
 DA> Another example:  Explosives were not "intended" to heat the ?-rations
 DA> in Vietnam, but I know a demolitions man who used plenty of it to heat
 DA> his and his buddies food.
Shit.  *I* have done this.  What's your point?
 DA> As the saying goes, "If it's stupid and it works, it's not stupid."
*My* point is, you don't try to kill flies with a cannon.  Sure, it'll do
the job, but if you destroy what you are trying to protect, what's the
point?
... Oxymoron:  Easy to read computer manual.
--- FM 1.02g/RA 2.02/FD 2.12
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