1 Julius Caeser marched on Gaul with 10 legions and auxiliares. The basic unit was a 'century' which was usually in practice, about 80 men. A Legion had about 4800 men. Auxiliaries were usually made up of troops from around the empire.

Famous among these were Balearic slingers. Of course they used a weapon we consider little more than a child's toy today, the sling.

"simple but terrible weapons, which were capable of great accuracy, and of crushing metal helmets and cuirasses"

Quinctus Caecilius Metellus lead the invasion that brought Balearica into the empire. He was forced to raise screens of hide to protect his ships, from stones hurled from shore.

Becoming part of the empire, they were with Caeser when he besieged the city of Alesia, where the Gaul cheiftain Vercingatorix held up with thousands of troops.

The seige itself was historically remarkable. Caeser knew the whole of the Gaulic people were rallying to rescue the besieged, and so Caeser built a donut shaped defensive work around the entire city. This defense allowed the Romans themselves to resist a seige from without, when a quarter of a million Gauls came to attack.

That's 250,000 attackers from the outside, while trying to break the town in the center, which had maybe another 30-50,000. Check those numbers versus the troops we have in Iraq!

Caeser used his Balearic slingers to support the most efficient pre-gunpowder infantry in the worlds history, in defeating the forces against him. Gaul was conquered.

Palestinian children are handed slings by their parents. Consider the effectiveness of even a few dozen such 'children' slinging stones at a few troops. I've seen some photos showing what these stones can do, and to say they are not deadly, is simply false.

As we know if we study the Muslim media, the sling is always represented favorably in the hands of children 'resisting' the 'invader'.

As for those 'children' who are not using a sling, I would remind a reader that stoning is a well understood form of execution. To prolong death it is required that stones not be to big, or the victim (some poor women most likely) might be killed outright. I would suppose the culture teaches 'children' what size stones are to big ...

I suppose they might be just right for killing a Jew though ...

If you have seen the parade of children dressed in camo, training with weapons in Palestine, you know that they are not children as we understand the word. Palestinian children are being raised as vicious monsters whose purpose is to die for Allah, and kill the Jew till then.

Imagine having to live next door to that.

Imagine having so much hatred aimed at you and your children. Imagine putting your kids on a bus for school while your neighbors kids train to kill you and yours.

In the hands of someone who is determined to kill you, many things become dangerous. Let alone that for 10,000 years stones have been used to kill, and are overlooked now, only because better ways of killing exist.

We need to keep radical Islam from ever getting a nuke.

Anyway, if I've made a lefty turn purple, my work here is done. I can support everything I've just typed, so try to bring something back of your own, instead of trying to find holes in mine. They aren't there.

I hope 'right' minded people found some value with this.

USA all the way!

2 What the AP naturally doesn't bother to tell you is that a lot of these "youths" are not hurling the stones with their hands but with shepard's slings. Ancient armies often preferred slingers to archers because, in the hands of an experienced slinger, the weapon was more accurate and had greater range (bow range wasn't that great before invention of the longbow and compound bow). According to SLINGING.ORG, a projectile launched from a sling can be slung over 1500 feet (450m) at speeds exceeding 250 miles per hour (400 kph). Excuse me AP, but that a fucking lethal weapon. Forget this "kids throwing rocks" bullshit.

From Wikipedia on ancient use of the sling:
The late Roman writer Vegetius, in his work De Re Militari, wrote:

Recruits are to be taught the art of throwing stones both with the hand and sling. The inhabitants of the Balearic Islands are said to have been the inventors of slings, and to have managed them with surprising dexterity, owing to the manner of bringing up their children. The children were not allowed to have their food by their mothers till they had first struck it with their sling. Soldiers, notwithstanding their defensive armour, are often more annoyed by the round stones from the sling than by all the arrows of the enemy. Stones kill without mangling the body, and the contusion is mortal without loss of blood. It is universally known the ancients employed slingers in all their engagements. There is the greater reason for instructing all troops, without exception, in this exercise, as the sling cannot be reckoned any encumbrance, and often is of the greatest service, especially when they are obliged to engage in stony places, to defend a mountain or an eminence, or to repulse an enemy at the attack of a castle or city.[6]

3 Some of the AP's "youths" "throwing" rocks:

http://www.slinging.org/mediacorbisgallery.html

4 Thanks to Ansar al-kuffir!

That link shows exactly what I'm talking about. This isn't about toys, it's about deadly force. Israel has been putting up with this for a long time, and we in the west never see it the way it is.

Now take the sling, and put something besides a rock into it. An incindiary, or other device. Now it becomes a man powered grenade launcher. How nice!

Anyway ... thanks again.

USA all the way!

5 Ansar al-kuffir and Michael Weaver - thanx for the eye-opener.  I had to blog about it.

6 Good post with good points.

7 How long before we take the gloves off and exterminate these vermin? A muslim is a scorpion crossed with a plague rat and a malaria mosquito, and they have no place in a civilized world.

8 I was cleaning my gun. Now I'm going outside to collect rocks.

9 jonny354