Current Events (Hospital ships)

> From: "Alan and Carmel Brain" <aebrain@webone.com.au>

> act

There's a reason contemporary hospital ships are not shot at (much - I
can't speak in absolutes, because I don't know for sure).

If you're a big enough power to have a dedicated hospital ship (how
many in the current world - a handful?) the ship is itself well known -
even famous - as such, at least in the main theater of operation. Any
clearly identified force firing on a hospital ship labels itself as criminal
in international eyes, and likewise, any group camouflaging
combat units as medics does much the same, since they make _everyone's_
job of tending to the wounded in a combat area hard to impossible. In
"civilized" war (oxymoronic as that term is) this simply won't happen.

In Guerilla, Terror, and Propaganda wars (e.g. GWII) it is far more
likely, but then the side that would _want_ to do this rarely has the
resources to pull it off (as in getting a significant military ship to
disguise - If they had those kind of resources, they'd be using on
something more effective and less flashy). The most I would expect is
what we see- using hospitals, shrines, schools and civilians as
hideouts/shields in attempts to get the enemy to commit perceived
atrocities. That's a propaganda war only, really. If they actually launched
successful attacks from those locations, they'd lose a great deal of sympathy
from remaining fence sitters (depending on the eyes and ears there to see and
report it, of course).

All bets would be off on a Xeno war. I have no idea whether the KV, SV, or
even Phalon would respect a Human hospital ship or pull a
Hospital-Q-ship tactic without scruples. My first guess is the KV
wouldn't respect ours, but wouldn't think to try the trick themselves. The SV
would behave differnetly on tuesday than on thursday, and the Phalons would do
whatever gave the most advantage. I don't think of them as being that
deceptive as a matter of course, though.

In sum then, I think a handful of "Great Hospital Ships" sprinkled in each of
the major fleets makes a great deal of sense.

Bizarre Lag Phenomena (Why it is sometimes hard to communicate

> All bets would be off on a Xeno war. I have no idea whether the KV, SV,

or even Phalon would respect a Human hospital ship
> The SV would behave differently on tuesday than on thursday

I'd think the SV would have difficulty with the idea of a hospital
ship--"all damaged constructs, plus any others not in use or awaiting
use,
are absorbed back into the bio-reserve".

If KV or PhC were in the area, I'd make darn sure my hospital ship had an
escort.

G'day,

> All bets would be off on a Xeno war. I have no idea whether

Scruples aside there is nothing to say that an alien species would have the
same value system regarding that stuff as we do. Beyond the fact they'd have
to realise what it is (wonder what a red cross or red crescent means to the
KV....) for them to "respect" such a vehicle it would have to have the same
meaning to their culture. Maybe they pile all their dead up in a ship and send
it at the enemy as a biological weapon and so by tradition all such ships are
now fired on out of hand.... bit like the clip out of the B5 movie where the
humans freak because the Minbari open their gun ports, not realising that was
not a threat in Minbari terms.

Cheers