This entry was posted on 11/26/2006 10:53 AM and is filed under All Posts.
Larry Kahaner has a fascinating column in today's Washington Post detailing the history of this weapon, and its massive impact on global warfare over the last 60 years.
The AK-47 has become the world's most prolific and effective combat weapon, a device so cheap and simple that it can be bought in many countries for less than the cost of a live chicken. Depicted on the flag and currency of several countries, waved by guerrillas and rebels everywhere, the AK is responsible for about a quarter-million deaths every year. It is the firearm of choice for at least 50 legitimate standing armies and countless fighting forces from Africa and the Middle East to Central America and Los Angeles. It has become a cultural icon, its signature form — that banana-shaped magazine — defining in our consciousness the contours of a deadly weapon.
Ironically, the weapon that helped end World War II, the atomic bomb, paved the way for the rise of the lower-tech but deadlier AK-47. The A-bomb's guarantee of mass destruction compelled the two Cold War superpowers to wage proxy wars in poor countries, with ill-trained combatants exchanging fire — usually with cheap, lightweight and durable AKs.
If you have time, I highly recommend you read the whole thing. Kahaner paints an amazing arc, from the end of WWII to the battlefields of Iraq, cementing the AK's legacy as the weapon of choice for third world resistance to Western influence.
