A weapon’s true kill range spans ecological and genetic time, not just space

Evidence

The Pentagon loves depleted uranium not just because it’s free, but also because the metal’s density gives it a high penetrative capacity. That means depleted-uranium munitions can be fired from greater distances, ensuring improved “kill range” and thereby purportedly helping keep U.S. troops out of harm’s way. But such reasoning depends on a myopic notion of “harm’s way” and “kill range”; both euphemisms demand an environmental gloss. For we need to measure a weapon’s “kill range” not just across battlefield space but across ecological and genetic time as well. — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 633

Categorization

• DEFINE: Nixon redefines ‘kill range’ to include temporal-ecological reach — a core rhetorical move against military euphemism, echoing ch.1’s unmasking of euphemism.
• XREF: Directly pays off ch.42 and ch.43 claims that precision-warfare rhetoric masks long-term toxic deaths; this is the defamiliarizing counter-definition. — connects to: Economic logic explains weapon evolution across virtually all animal species — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 198; Technologies promising shorter wars can extend violence across ecological time — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 624

Broader Connections

• Technologies promising shorter wars can extend violence across ecological time #expands (0.85) — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 624
• Economic logic explains weapon evolution across virtually all animal species #expands (0.80) — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 198