Chemical and biological weapons treaties rightly ban deadly agents like VX, mustard gas and anthrax.  These same treaties also ban any research on non-lethal agents, a consequence that governments might want to consider reviewing.

The cost of the Iraq War and reconstruction will easily top $500B. This fiscal cost does not even begin to address the mental and physical toll on civilians, soldiers and families.  If the goal is regime change, not mass killing and destruction, shouldn't coalition forces use every resource at their disposal to achieve this goal? What would happen if research money flowed into developing effective sleeping agents, instead of targeted bombs that kill?

A 24 hour sleep-inducing fog over Baghdad could save countless lives and save hundreds of billions of dollars.  Think about it.  Put Baghdad to sleep.  Storm the city, deal with radically less resistance, tie soldier's up, and walk out the Iraqi regime relatively unharmed (and I do mean for both sides).  A valuable side effect of this strategy would be that Iraqi troops, who might have gas masks to protect themselves but who are also embedding themselves throughout the civilian population, would stand out among sleeping Iraqi civilians.  Obviously, this is a ridiculously simplified example, but point is there.

This type of scenario won't happen in this war, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't in the future.  Unfortunately, this scenario is not even being discussed or considered.  Last year the Rand Corporation delivered a 2015 technology forecast to the National Intelligence Council which informs the US military and government agencies on emerging technologies.  A glaring omission in this report was any mention of developments occurring in neurotechnology.

The development of non-lethal weapons is far less advanced than lethal weapons as was seen last October when Russian special forces used "sleeping agents" to quell a terrorist attack. War is horrible, but wouldn't it be a step in the right direction if we began to see the proliferation of non-lethal weapons instead of the deadly weapons used today? 

Clearly what I am proposing will cause alarm, but a significant public conversation around this subject might yield some important insights and potentially save countless lives in the years to come.