Absolutely ridiculous. Because the Pentagon is worried about public perception, it refuses to bring a machine into battle that would save Americans and Iraqis – the Active Denial System. If you’re not familiar with the weapon, here’s the company’s description:

The Silent Guardian™ protection system is a revolutionary less-than-lethal directed energy application that employs millimeter wave technology to repel individuals or crowds without causing injury. The system provides a zone of protection that saves lives, protects assets and minimizes collateral damage.

Basically it’s a truck-mounted dish-like object that send energy out in the direction of an angry crowd, insurgent, etc. It won’t kill them, but it causes temporary pain to stop them. So, why won’t the military use it? Potential PR issues.

It’s a ray gun that neither kills nor maims, but the Pentagon has refused to deploy it out of concern that the weapon itself might be seen as a torture device. … The main reason the tool has been missing in action is public perception. With memories of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal still fresh, the Pentagon is reluctant to give troops a space-age device that could be misconstrued as a torture machine.

It’s not a torture device, but it may be misconstrued as one. To me, it’s like a TASER or rubber bullet, just usable in long-range combat. But because there are people more concerned with making sure terrorists aren’t having their feelings hurt, it won’t be deployed.

Let’s take a little flashback to history, if we may. See this picture?

It’s an M2-2 flame thrower. During WWII, the Japanese would defend the islands in the Pacific Theater, from caves or pillboxes. Often, the flamethrower would become the only option to fight the Japanese. It was also used in Europe to clear German bunkers. Let’s not prissy it up: It burned the enemy up alive or sucked up the available oxygen. But if it weren’t for these weapons, how many more of our soldiers would’ve died? How much longer would the war have lasted?

Back to the ray gun. It’s a non-lethal, temporary discomfort device, which would be deployed to save soldier and civilian lives. Instead of killing someone you’re trying to stop, you can temporarily disable them.

And we’ve become such a prissy culture, that that would be considered torture.