I'd like to know who/what they tested on to find this out. Wait, no, I don't.

@Gann:
Cow eyeballs most likely.

like in Ruff's Sewer, Gas and Electric.
The shiva weapon that blinded one of the characters. A laser system that looks for reflections from lens, eyes, binoculars, and targets them with a laser.
I thought something like that would be much easer and more likely than a laser that could kill.

@Gann: Children who didn't eat their vegetables.

@Gann: Kitties and puppies!

eww, can you imagine a battle field that has a bright flash, and then suddenly everyone's eyes explode and skin bubbles up...

@Gann: Ponies. Pink ones.

@Gann: If there is any justice in the world, Carrot Top.

Virtual eyballs. No, really.

What would be the point of an anti-personnel laser, really? It's a focused beam...if you're going to melt their eyes with a super-expensive laser, you'd might as well just shoot them the old fashioned way and save some money.

@Trystero:

'Dead man tell no tales, live ones can be quite talkative?'

Iono. My rationale falls apart when you consider that the average response of a (now blind) soldier is going to be riddle the immediate area with automatic weapon fire.

I think this will be a "fair use" weapon when we have a stemcell treatment to fix eyes. Until then the idea of blinding people is too nasty. I could see using muntinegenic compounds to turn them into frogs, though. I love frog legs!

From the Geneva Convention:
"Protocol IV on Blinding Laser Weapons prohibits the use of laser weapons specifically designed, as their sole combat function or as one of their combat functions, to cause permanent blindness to unenhanced vision, that is to the naked eye or to the eye with corrective eyesight devices. The High Contracting Parties shall not transfer such weapons to any State or non-State entity."
[www.un.org]

Chinese Army has had Laser Rifles for over a decade. Their primary purpose is to blind the enemy. Especially when the enemy is using any light amplifying equipment. Batteries are a serious problem on the battlefield, so these weapons are treated like any other one shot and throw away weapon. Then it's back to the trusty AK.

@Trystero:
It's more disruptive to blind/wound someone. One wounded soldier requires medics, stretcher bearers from the squad and docs--battlefield math, one wounded troop requires approximate six people to help them.

A dead soldier is just dead.

I wonder if anyone else has heard about those incidents when some pilots were blinded by high powered lasers? Or how in International Waters sometimes ships that sail past each other point lasers into the pilots (or is it captains?) eyes? Mind you each time this has happened authorities would say that the lasers used were not the type you can buy at a Best Buy...these were high powered military grade stuff.

@ManchuCandidate: I think that's also the same tactic that armies use mines for as well?

@Silver_Back: Indeed- it's the reason why AP mines were so popular, wounded soldiers are a much bigger loss for the enemy than deaths - AP mines, caltrops, booby traps, roadside bombs and IEDs, the list goes on, both back and forward in time.

Now I'm just a simple backwoods nerd, and I don't rightly know just what the hell is meant by such a high-falutin' term as 'bulk modulus' - I think it might just be a fancy-pants way of saying 'total changes' but would any of you young 'uns care to (ahem) illuminate me?

@Gann: Perhaps they used Patagonian sheep, since many are rumored to go blind anyway as a result of the high levels of ultraviolet rays.

@ManchuCandidate: Exactly. Same reason it used to be a good strategy to shoot the horses first. Confused, injured horses were good for creating a lot of chaos on the battlefield.