There's hope for us yet:
"A laser developed for military use is a few steps away from hitting a power threshold thought necessary to turn it into a battlefield weapon ... It could take only a further six to eight months to break the "magic" 100kW mark ... Potentially, lasers could destroy rockets, roadside bombs and annoying streetlights."
A slightly edited extract ... the original is here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6380789.stm