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Missile Defense

Technology has always found its greatest consumer in a nation's war and defense efforts. Since the last attempts at a "Star Wars" defense system, has technology changed considerably enough to make the latest Missile Defense initiatives more successful? Can such an application of science be successful? Is a militarized space inevitable, necessary or impossible?

possumdag - 04:53am Oct 5, 2001 EST (#10072 of 10083)
Possumdag@excite.com

Sir.

Perhaps people 'won't talk about that', diversion excepted, because they are ill equipt to do so.

To talk on a technical subject with authority and at depth, most often demands the understanding, wisdom and experience, of an allied expert.

That those in authority don't bring experts into the circle - to assist understanding and dialogue is the telling factor?

rshowalter - 05:18am Oct 5, 2001 EST (#10073 of 10083)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

They don't call in experts for a number of reasons, and there are "good" and "bad" part of the reasons, pretty often.

For one thing, they don't call in help because they don't know themselves and what their problem is well enough to explain it coherently. When they try to think through questions like

"What do I tell her?"

or

" What do I ask for?"

They can be stumped for intellectual reasons. But for other reasons, too. They may not have answers for the question

" What can I admit?"

that they can even think about.

People can be stumped just because the problem they face is beyond them, just then. But very often that happens because they are paralyzed with lies and evasions.

Very often, when a time comes where difficult decisions have to be made, - people are both intellectually and morally overwhelmed and paralyzed. The human consequences can be expensive, and tragic, and there is no escaping such difficulties completely.

Nobody can be redeemed from those sorts of problems in a flash of inspiration, or "conversion." We're too complex for that, are world is too complex for that, and so are our problems.

Things have to be faced step by step. Set up so that they are seen whole. Evaluated in the context where they are. Very often, something beautiful, that would have been hidden without the effort and the honesty, comes to mind, and then comes to fruition.

But, again and again, if things are to be dealt with decently (with "decently" interpreted at any and every level of Maslow's ladder) problems have to be faced . . . not evaded.

So that at least somethings can be sorted out.

Very often, there are good solutions.

The world is complex enough that there is, very often, room for them.

That is a saving grace that can only come when people are honest with themselves and others, in the small, specific ways where they are equipped to think, act, and interact.

rshowalter - 05:19am Oct 5, 2001 EST (#10074 of 10083)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Often enough, the "experts" screw up, too.

rshowalter - 05:19am Oct 5, 2001 EST (#10075 of 10083)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

You have to check.

rshowalter - 06:48am Oct 5, 2001 EST (#10076 of 10083)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Yes, but What? by THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/05/opinion/05FRIE.html

Absolutely right and fair, as far as it goes. I liked the ending especially:

" But how about a little candor? YES, America should look deeper into its policies and actions — BUT, BUT, BUT we're not the only ones who need to look in the mirror. "

The moslem world has been paralyzed, and doing a lot of things remarkably badly, since the late 15th century. (In William H. McNeill's The Rise of The West , an excellent world history (though, or course, only one view) there is a section titled The Moslem Catalepsy (catalepsy means roughly "a general paralysis") and it is a fair choice of words.

America doesn't have to apologize for a lot of things other people may happen not to like. The arabs, very notably Bin Laden, are ugly and in the wrong very often. If I had a chance to kill Bin Laden with my own hands I'd be overjoyed to do so. Cleanly and neatly.

If we took the following position, it would, in my view, be the safest and best possible for us, and a responsible one, as well.

"America WILL look into the mirror -- we'll discuss our failings in public - - but YOU MUST, TOO, AND WE CAN AND WILL FORCE YOU TO DO SO"

That might be percieved as too threatening by other nations, and by some intellectual groups. But it would be a position that would play to America's real strengths, that we could be proud of, and that would be intensely practical.

almarst-2001 - 07:31am Oct 5, 2001 EST (#10077 of 10083)

"BUT, BUT, BUT we're not the only ones who need to look in the mirror. "

What is tolerable from the small puppy is punishable when done by a giant gorilla.

The US can't point finger to Iraq and say "We are not worst".

almarst-2001 - 07:36am Oct 5, 2001 EST (#10078 of 10083)

Robert,

Do you really understand the differences in treads and what it takes for survival, the small poor and weak nations face, surrounded by stronger and opportunistic neighbors?

Do you understand the difference in what is at stake for US vs. say Macedonia?

(5 following messages)

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