Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!emory!att!cbnews!cbnews!military From: wmartin@STL-06SIMA.ARMY.MIL (Will Martin) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: When were tanks last used? Message-ID: <1990Nov27.045624.4585@cbnews.att.com> Date: 27 Nov 90 04:56:24 GMT Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker) Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 42 Approved: military@att.att.com From: Will Martin "When did a tank last fire its gun 'for real'?" The facetious answer would probably be "yesterday", or "a minute ago", or, if you want to play games with the Interational Date Line, Coordinated Universal Time, and the definition of "date", "tomorrow". The problem with answering a question like this is that the world is so big, and there are so many armed forces in it, and there is so much conflict, that there probably is *some* fighting going on *somewhere* at any time. Armor may possibly be used in any of these instances. For example, we have little idea what is going on in Myanmar (formerly Burma); there was a lot of repression of popular unrest there by the government, and armor was used in the past, so it probably is being used there now. There are all sorts of warring factions -- governments, bandits, warlords, etc., in the Golden Triangle, and I'm sure a tank or two comes into play now and then there. As I recall, even though the Russians pulled out, the Afghan rebels are still fighting the Afghan government, and tanks were used there all along. In various parts of central and southern Africa, various factions, movements, and governments are fighting on a more or less continuous basis, and armor is used there from time to time. Central American fighting continues, with tanks involved at times. And so forth... The only way this sort of question can be asked in a more meaningful way is to hedge it all about with legalistic and arbitrary restrictions and definitions, speaking only of "the armed forces of a legitimate government," or "during a declared state of war," etc. If you get precise enough with those terms, and specific enough with the criteria, you can probably legitimately come up with "World War II" as a defensible answer. Of course, that's just a meaningless mind exercise and of no real value; you can always come up with any desired answer if you can manipulate the question to suit you. As a general rule, I think you can assume that just about any weapon, or at least "category of weapon", that exists, is being used now. The only exception is "nuclear", and that's just because their distribution is limited, they are expensive, and their use is fairly easy to detect. Regards, Will