World War Z/Headscratchers: Difference between revisions

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* [[This Is Sparta|Bull. Shit.]] Massive explosions (like the ones created by the military's favorite shock-and-awe weapon, the [[wikipedia:GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb|MOAB]]) don't throw around and overpressure bodies-- they rip them apart. No zombies would be getting back up, because no zombies would be in less than seven pieces. The MOAB can level city blocks, the zombies would be a game to it.
* [[This Is Sparta|Bull. Shit.]] Massive explosions (like the ones created by the military's favorite shock-and-awe weapon, the [[wikipedia:GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb|MOAB]]) don't throw around and overpressure bodies-- they rip them apart. No zombies would be getting back up, because no zombies would be in less than seven pieces. The MOAB can level city blocks, the zombies would be a game to it.
** This was in the middle of America's Biggest City, which they were hoping to eventually re-take without destroying it in the process. They didn't want to devastate the city if they didn't have to, hence why they held off on using air bombs (such as the Fuel Air Bomb at the end of the Yonkers chapter) until the battle was essentially lost.
** This was in the middle of America's Biggest City, which they were hoping to eventually re-take without destroying it in the process. They didn't want to devastate the city if they didn't have to, hence why they held off on using air bombs (such as the Fuel Air Bomb at the end of the Yonkers chapter) until the battle was essentially lost.
*** In the real world, the only real reason the military will hestitate to blow up buildings full of enemies is if innocent bystanders are also living in them. If the city is full of a giant chain swarm of zombies then they don't have that problem -- every human being in the zone is already dead and Z'ed. So blow it to hell and rebuild it later. Bombs are cheaper than people. Buildings are cheaper than people. ''Everything'' is cheaper than people. Plus, the property is of absolutely zero value to anyone anyway if its got a million zombies squatting on it, and military planners are intimately familiar with the term "sunk cost"... especially since they didn't pay to build the buildings in the first place, and won't pay to rebuild them after blowing them up. (Why do you think ''every'' major property insurance policy in the world specifies 'not liable for acts of war or acts of God', anyhoo?)
*** In the real world the only real reason the military will hestitate to blow up buildings full of enemies is if innocent bystanders are also living in them. ''Occasionally'' an exception is made if something is some kind of World Heritage monument, but there's a lot of blown-up ancient temples in Vietnam that can testify that even that much forbearance is situational. If the city is full of a giant chain swarm of zombies then they don't have that problem -- every human being in the zone is already dead and Z'ed. So blow it to hell and rebuild it later. Bombs are cheaper than people. Buildings are cheaper than people. ''Everything'' is cheaper than people. Plus, the property is of absolutely zero value to anyone anyway if its got a million zombies squatting on it, and military planners are intimately familiar with the term "sunk cost"... especially since they didn't pay to build the buildings in the first place, and won't pay to rebuild them after blowing them up. (Why do you think ''every'' major property insurance policy in the world specifies 'not liable for acts of war or acts of God', anyhoo?)
** Saying that the military is uneducated about fighting zombies is like saying the US navy in uneducated about fighting wooden frigates. Technically true but irrelevant since actual soldiers, or even actual insurgents are far, far tougher to kill. Over confidence is one thing, balls to the wall idiocy is another. An overconfident commander overextending himself and getting flanked is understandable. An overconfident tank commander getting his company blown up after entering a city without infantry support is understandable. A command capable of getting high tech equipment and air support failing to contain a group of shambling unintelligent enemies is populated with complete and utter idiots. Since when is the brain immune to concussive force from artillery? Food for thought: You know why infantrymen were issued helmets in WWI? Not to stop rifle bullets since they weren't strong enough to do so at regular combat ranges but to protect soldiers from artillery, since the head is the most likely part to get hit by shrapnel from air burst munitions. The zombies being tightly packed would make them vulnerable to artillery and bombs, plus it would allow more powerful weapons like 50 cals and 20mm cannons to take out multiple enemies with one bullet. And not you do not have to take out the head to neutralize the zombies, a zombies that has been expose to enough fire will simply fall apart. Plus, if the first rank of zombies falls, the next rank will have trouble going over them and so on until a literal wall of bodies have been formed.
** Saying that the military is uneducated about fighting zombies is like saying the US navy in uneducated about fighting wooden frigates. Technically true but irrelevant since actual soldiers, or even actual insurgents are far, far tougher to kill. Over confidence is one thing, balls to the wall idiocy is another. An overconfident commander overextending himself and getting flanked is understandable. An overconfident tank commander getting his company blown up after entering a city without infantry support is understandable. A command capable of getting high tech equipment and air support failing to contain a group of shambling unintelligent enemies is populated with complete and utter idiots. Since when is the brain immune to concussive force from artillery? Food for thought: You know why infantrymen were issued helmets in WWI? Not to stop rifle bullets since they weren't strong enough to do so at regular combat ranges but to protect soldiers from artillery, since the head is the most likely part to get hit by shrapnel from air burst munitions. The zombies being tightly packed would make them vulnerable to artillery and bombs, plus it would allow more powerful weapons like 50 cals and 20mm cannons to take out multiple enemies with one bullet. And not you do not have to take out the head to neutralize the zombies, a zombies that has been expose to enough fire will simply fall apart. Plus, if the first rank of zombies falls, the next rank will have trouble going over them and so on until a literal wall of bodies have been formed.
*** As has been mentioned up-thread, they '''did''' take out a ton of zombies with the use of artillery and tank-fire. The problem was that there '''wasn't enough of it to destroy the following waves''' (due to supply issues, mostly likely coming from the fact that Yonkers happened in the middle of the Great Panic), which they didn't anticipate because they didn't know about "chain swarms". They were only expecting a couple thousand zombies, and instead half of zombified New York City ended up shambling after them.
*** As has been mentioned up-thread, they '''did''' take out a ton of zombies with the use of artillery and tank-fire. The problem was that there '''wasn't enough of it to destroy the following waves''' (due to supply issues, mostly likely coming from the fact that Yonkers happened in the middle of the Great Panic), which they didn't anticipate because they didn't know about "chain swarms". They were only expecting a couple thousand zombies, and instead half of zombified New York City ended up shambling after them.
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