On Mon, 19 Jan 2009, SA wrote:
> Sounds like between all these options they'll find a way to close the
> tunnels.
I don't read this list like that. If none of the barrier methods work (and according to this list, they don't), the sensor methods don't really help much. They tell you what you already know: there are 300-400 tunnels down there. Then you have bomb them, which is pretty much what they're doing now. And then they build again, you bomb again, and you have exactly the porous set up you have now. It works to stop tunnels into Israel, but not into Egypt. The bombing can't be pinpoint (because they're underground where you can't actually see and 60 feet of dirt is an enormous protective barrier). And this doesn't even begin to deal with countermeasures like shoring up tunnels to withstand bombing or figuring out how to decoy the sensors.
It's kind of amazing, really. It seems like yet another testament to Dwayne's postulate that in the long term there is no technological fix that can stop determined low-tech human inventiveness.
Michael