But what happens when the machines rebel?
Saudi-supplied arms, which began to flow in earnest only earlier this year, are grinding down Mr Assad's war machine, encouraging rebels on the southern front to push closer to Damascus.
Told that, after 25 years' loyal service, he is to be replaced by a machine, he rebels by murdering his boss and, after execution, is moodily transported to the Elysian Fields.
Slavery proved essential to the Confederate war machine, and Rebels strove to protect it just as they did Southern cities, towns, and railroads.
The best hope for Venezuela's future is that its dysfunctional military forces manage to break free from the Cuban counterintelligence machine and rebel against the dictatorship.
When we look at the rise of artificial intelligence, it's easy to get carried away with dystopian visions of sentient machines that rebel against their human creators.
Last November, hundreds of rebels, machine guns on their backs, marched into Goma, setting off a national crisis.
Mr. Bodrani said a pro-Qaddafi force with about 30 vehicles struck from the north and south, and seven pickup trucks carrying antiaircraft machine guns followed rebels toward the Tunisian town, Dhiba, roughly three miles away.
With the road blocked by machine-gun wielding rebels, the price of rice, the staple food here, has doubled.
Fierce fighting between United States marines and Iraqi insurgents erupted in Falluja on Tuesday night, with an AC-130 gunship, tanks and machine guns blasting rebel positions in the district where American troops attacked a mosque on Monday and toppled the minaret.
