--- Jon Senior said:

Thought experiment:

A badly defended country (Smallium) is under attack from two sides.
The
neighbour to the East (Biggus) is categorised as a Superpower and has
highly advanced technology. He is making vast headway into the
civilian
population of Smallium. The neighbour to the West (Tribus) has an
aggressive populace armed with particularly sharp mangoes. As a large
neighbour to both Biggus and Tribus you can stop either of them. Your
mandate is to defend Smallium. What do you do?


Hmmm... I don't accept the premise of this thought experiment because I
don't accept that this is an "Either/Or" situation. (E.g. How do we
know that Biggus and Tribus aren't already allied against Smallium?)
And anyway, pedestrians would be in the position of Tribus, not
Smallium -- we've got the least to defend ourselves with out of any of
the three groups! Heck at least cyclists are armed with bikes.
Pedestrians don't even get a blunt mango to harm other road users with!