military technology!?

Question

Compare the military technology of WWI with today's military technology. How does each period's technology affect the outcome and consequences of war?

Answer 1

Military technology made World War I a bloodbath; the perfection of machine guns, poison gas, and large artillery, and the first experiments in military air power and tanks, meant that soldiers died on a larger scale than in previous wars. Unfortunately, the military leaders were not able to gain an advantage, since this technology was available to all combatants. Thus, World War I was a bloody war of attrition.

By contrast, modern military technology is very unevenly distributed. The great powers of America, Europe, and Asia have an almost inconceivable technological advantage over the less-developed countries--the high point of this superiority is, of course, the nuclear bomb. This has affected the outcome of war in two ways. First, the power of modern weapons has made war between powerful nations almost inconceivable: the US and USSR were sworn enemies for decades, but they never even traded gunfire with each other. Second, it has led to situations like the one in Iraq today, in which insurgent groups use "asymmetrical" attacks to attempt to neutralize the will of an army it could never hope to defeat in pitched battle.