Quantum Leap For Lasers?

So it looks like the defence forces in the USA will have tactical lasers to add to their armoury in a year or less.  And their own admission is that they will not really be a humane weapon at all, it seems that they've taken a step backwards here. 

Honestly - does this sound humane?

"[F]rom what we know, the Air Force considers laser effects on eyes and skin, for the most part. Skin damage is very much easier to achieve than penetration; simply raising skin temperature to (say) 80C/ 180 f to a depth of a couple of millimeters will cause serious blistering (second-third degree burns). If 40% of the body is burned in this way, then the target will be disabled and may die."

Ummm that makes the tacticla laser a weapon which is surely never intended to actually be used against a human opponent?  Therefore, this weapon must work by increasing the fear and terror of the enemy.  And that kind of mkaes it a weapon of terrorism doesn't it?  How ironic...

Here's a thought for all those people out there thinking up bigger ans nastier ways to kill other people - the laser is an effective weapon because it aligns all the waves of the light.  But the photons comprising those entrained waves are still spread out over a considerable distance.  Now that science has proven that they can slow down photons, think how much more "pew-pew" a laser would be if, instead of delivering all those photons in an entrained wave but temporally disparate, and instead concentrated the photons into a single event...  At least it would punch a hole through the target rather than slow broil them...