Kuala Lampur, Sept. 4 -- Whenever Asia stages a military parade, the familiar refrain from the West is that such displays are "provocative," "a show of force," or "a sign of authoritarian chest-thumping."

Yet the same critics often gloss over the fact that Western powers have, for decades, tested their own arsenals not on parade grounds, but in actual battlefields - where men, women, and children become unwilling participants in the proving ground of military technology.

From Vietnam to Iraq, from Afghanistan to Libya, Western-made missiles, drones, and warplanes have been tested in "live fire conditions." In their vocabulary, this is described as "operational necessity," "collateral damage," or "precision targeting gone wrong."

The hu...