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Thread
: Lines/Colors/3D
The GI Joe/Cobra Concept Art & Filecard Project
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02-22-2011, 01:07 AM
zuludelta
EQ-Viper
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Canada
Posts: 4,343
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Lifeline_MD
I just learned something new. Out of curiosity (and because I'm too lazy to google) why were they unofficially banned? Too cruel?
The UN drafted a resolution in 1980 banning the use of flame weapons (that includes flamethrowers and thermate/thermite grenades) against civilians on the grounds of it being an especially inhumane weapon. Not very many of the big Cold War players were signatories to the resolution, though (IIRC, both the US and the Soviet Union refused to sign it, I think the UK may have ignored it as well). Still, despite not signing it, both the US and the Soviet Union and most of their allies were already voluntarily phasing out backpack flamethrowers at around the time the resolution was being floated in the late 1970s.
AFAIK, no official reason has been given by either the US or the USSR for why they were phased out, although the common reason most people assume is that it's too cruel of a weapon (not entirely true, "cruelty" was a consideration only because the use of the flamethrower could be a public relations nightmare for the armies using it). But really, "cruelty" aside (as if there was such a thing as an objectively "non-cruel" method of killing in war), the backpack flamethrower was obsolete given the nature of post-WWII military technology. It had limited range, wasteful when it came to fuel, and had limited effectiveness against modern structures and armored vehicles, and there were more effective and efficient ways to get men and materiel to burn (such as with the use of thermobaric and incendiary munitions).
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Last edited by zuludelta; 02-22-2011 at
01:13 AM
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