Ray guns in Iraq?

Wow, your guns don't run out of ammo?

Of course not :) What I was evoking were the old arguments in the SF community regarding the utility of energy weapons vs. gunpowder weapons in extraterrestrial colonial situations. Generally the argument went that on an Earth-like planet, you'd probably have the lower-tech resources available to reload and repair your gunpowder weapon, preventing you having to rely on a high-tech electronic repair facility that probably wouldn't exist anywhere near you anyway.

I guess I've soaked up too much H. Beam Piper over the years :)