Jim Hague said:
You know that even an M1 Abrams will often throw a tread when trying to drive through something like a crowd, right? And 200,000 zombies makes a tank, or artillery, infantry, whatever, look pretty feeble in comparison. With 200,000 'troops', a fighting force can take out a modern unit at the size of the Long Island defense with rocks. Go check out what happened to Rommel in Ethiopia.
Your friends are too much in love with their military hardware.
You're too much in love with your own wit and clearly don't know nearly as much as you think you do.
Tanks do throw treads yes. Congrats on passing military hardware 101.
Often, No. If they fell off that easily they'd be hard pressed to make it down a rubble strewn street. While they would get bogged down eventually, 65 tons at 35 mph has a lot of kinetic energy.
You, like the author, clearly has no idea what ICM, claymore mines, cluster munitions, Thermobaric warheads and canister rounds from 120mm cannons can do to human bodies. While the heads might not all be destroyed, they also aren't very dangerous without bodies attached.
BTW Rommel wasn't beaten in Ethiopia. Your "encyclopedic knowlege" has gotten him confused with the Italians, who haven't been noted for their military skill since the Visigoths sacked Rome. The Ethiopeans also had one of the strongest militaries in Africa at the time, they weren't up to European standards (I don't think they had much of anything in the way of armor), but weren't exactly pushovers either as the Italians found out and the Ethiopeans at least had guns, not to mention the ability to think. Two things Zombies are notably lacking in.
However it's worth pointing out the Italians did eventually beat them, even if they had to resort to poison gas to do so.
The author at least was only guilty of being sloppy and putting the plot ahead of logic. He did recognize that the military would be called upon to fight the zombie hordes, but obviously wanted to show them failing, in order to help build an atmosphere of dispair and helplessness. Since the zombies getting slaughtered wouldn't exactly help with this and like you he didn't know enough to write things accurately, he basically just said they failed. Though he did at least try to cover this up by making them be operating under stupid orders and bad leadership.
Unfortunately, the basic fact is that with out something considerably more than just numbers you aren't going to beat a modern military force. Simple toughness doesn't cut it. See American Civil War, WWI, Iran-Iraq War, Gulf War 1 and Gulf War 2. Please do a little bit more reading of history.
I can appreciate the concern, though, as when things that I do know are used inappropriately or stupidly, it bugs the heck out of me.
