General Weider is a character in Isaac Asimov's science-fiction short story "The Weapon Too Dreadful to Use".
About Weider[]
General Weider was a seasoned and perceptive military commander, well-versed in the brutal logic of warfare and human nature. He was put in charge of overseeing the military application of Professor Norbert Mayberry's revolutionary invention, the Negation Field.
At the Testing Ground, he observed the demonstration with a professional and calculating eye. Through his subordinate, the Colonel, he ordered a series of increasingly powerful attacks against the field, from small-arms fire to artillery shells and high-explosive bombs. The Field neutralized them all perfectly, astonishing the soldiers and delighting Professor Mayberry.
However, unlike the idealistic inventor, Weider was not pleased. He immediately understood that the weapon's very perfection was its greatest danger. He explained to a horrified Mayberry that the Negation Field would not end war but would simply make all existing forms of it obsolete. The nation that possessed it would become invincible on the conventional battlefield, able to attack with impunity.
His critical insight was predicting the enemy's inevitable response: biological weapons. Since germs are not projectiles, they would pass through the Negation Field unaffected. Faced with certain defeat, the enemy would be forced to resort to plague and disease, unleashing them upon civilian populations. The result would not be a victory for either side, but a mutual genocide that would wipe out both combatants entirely.
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