Wow...

No, those cleaning rods, were made of unobtanium. The rare metal was formed into cleaning rods, so they could be smuggled into the different theaters of battle. Then, they were assembled into super collectors, to collect micro-soidial discoboomeration rays from the planet Beldar. Once enough rays were collected into a vaccusooviationial chamber, They could then be directed at enemy troops, an make them loose their mojo. You won't find any reference to that in the history books either.