Do you really think it wise if we "smoked" a bunch of reporters and turned the thing up full blast on them?
I'm not into the "less lethal" stuff either. It might have a use, but pretty limited in my mind.
However, a LOT of DOD money gets spent on stuff since the Congress wants it to happen and they write in into the budget that way. I forget what year, but in the last 10 the DOD was either the #1 or #2 funder of breast cancer research.
Saw an article the other day that the Army is funding the Nature Conservancy and other enivormental groups (through the Congress's mandate) so they can buy land around the Army post to protect it from developement.
My point is, the Army is usually not the one who decides that this is the way to spend "it's" money. It's the Congress. So vent on them, and not those in uniform.