(vanvlak @ May 15 2007,00:08)
QUOTE
Call me daft, but I sympathise with the colonel. It's a small step away from using an animal (and in the future, that step will be shorter still), and another small step away from using a human considered to be expendable. There are simpler and better and cheaper ways to get rid of mines.
Before the job at the engineering firm I have now I actually spent the last few years working for a company that provided unexploded ordnance disposal, land mine remediation and chemical weapons safety consulting services.
We were actually bidding on a Canadian government de-mining contract in Afghanistan but in the end the government decided to fund local de-mining ops on the theory that even if 90% of the allocated money was lost to graft you'd still see more real results hiring Afghans than Westerners.
To put things in perspective one of our techs would pull around $10,000 USD per month where an Afghani with a similar amount of experience would pull bout $200 USD per month. Which in relative terms is probably comparable to the Canadian salary but...
Not to mention that in absolute terms and Afghan is cheaper to replace than a $150,000 USD robot after an explosion. And that unfortunately is a very real concern in countries where land mines have been heavily seeded.
Not very polite to admit but none the less a working truth.
And as far as the animals go I believe that at least one country is using Tanzanian Rats as land mine sniffers
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3123119.stm
Really the cheapest method is still plain old fashioned human clearance once the field is identified.
We could go right back to Descartes for that!
Descartes 'Cartesian Dualism' died a death a long time ago, except perhaps in the eyes of the general public in some countries. Mind is just the physical brain working and no serious brain scientist believes otherwise these days. Seen too many patients and case studies to believe differently... 
, its intresting to see the response of the officer involved...
E/W has some excellent Khazari Droids and DRM has a whole army of Toasters ! More and more robots are being used by the Military. I don't think it will ever become like BSG with whole units of AIs. And I don't know if they will be used as weapons platfrom ? On Maksim's 6mm SFWG site, I've had a long discussion with an engineering student, IIRC. And it appears to him and others based on his research, etc., that GEVs will never be used as in Hammer's Slammers. And the same goes for Grav-tanks. However, robotic walkers are being worked on and may eventually be wide spread ... And GEV/Grav; the tech and other things, are not just there to make them viable. So combat walkers have a bigger chance of being on the battlefield then GEV MBTs !? And as far as AI emotions, it's a familiar theme in many Star Trek(all iterations) episodes. It's an interesting paradigm. From a military stand point anytime you can limit the risk of your troopers lives and limbs - Is a good thing. But I can see the LTC's reaction ... I've medevaced some one who stepped on a mine ... it's a bad thing ...
? Once we as humans give a Machine a name, and interact with it we personify "it" ... and with that may come unexpected results ! 
?Frankly I like to play a 6mm Sci-fi game with Cdr. Data (if he were real !?). He'd take DRM Andriods and I ... IG or if they existed, 6mm Slammers - now that would be a game ! 