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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?

rshowalter - 03:15pm Oct 5, 2001 EST (#10092 of 10111)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

I think some scholarly work, and some work by people acting in the spirit of H.L. Menken, might go a long way to reducing the status of these people, many of whom ought to be ashamed of their pretensions - and the ugliness that their orders generates in societies where they assume so much undeserved and pretentious power.

rshowalter - 05:35pm Oct 5, 2001 EST (#10093 of 10111)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

I want to step back from thinking through issues involving religion - - not because the issues are off point -- I think they are unavoidable - -but because they are both very important, and dangerous.

In Yes, but What? by THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/05/opinion/05FRIE.html there are points that may not fit together:

"I don't want to see the Saudi regime destabilized."

may be inconsistent with his reasonable request for

"a little candor"

Candor may be hard to come by in these societies. We may find that rooting out some lies is necessary for any workable solutions to our problems, and if that stresses some Islamic powers-that-be, they may have to be stressed.

Otherwise, there may be no solution for their problems, or for ours. There are examples where Americans can look illogical, or tied up in falsehoods. But if you look just a little at many very self satisfied and morally indignant arab countries, you may find many examples of the same sorts of problems. Many more serious impediments to the day to day function of their societies. And there seem to be many more of such impediments, weighting them down, than weigh us down.

We should clean up our problems, and the world is asking us to, sometimes none too politely. The world has the right to ask. We have just the same right to ask that some key problems in the Arab world get cleaned up. For survival, we may have to ask for them to clean up the workings of their societies, in their own interest as well as ours.

Discussion of religion, and issues of when getting to facts may be morally forcing may be unavoidable, given the situation we're in.

The West needs to be on the side of consistency with objective truth - - and if it is, it can make powerful arguments in its own interest, all over the world. Our religious traditions can handle that challenge very well. Theirs may have more difficulty - - and the difficulties may nonetheless have to be faced.

rshowalter - 05:40pm Oct 5, 2001 EST (#10094 of 10111)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

In lots of conflicts, many of the bad things each side says of the other are true enough.

In the Israeli - Palestinian tragedy-war-mess, the Israelis surely do have circumstances that they need to face up to. But so, emphatically, do the Palestinians and their supporters.

I don't think that any lasting solutions can be found that are not emotionally viable - and for emotional and practical viability - everybody has to be "reading off the same page" in those areas where interaction between the two groups has to happen.

Getting some facts straight is going to have to be morally forcing.

That will be hard for the Israelis, but perhaps harder for the Palestinians.

rshowalter - 05:49pm Oct 5, 2001 EST (#10095 of 10111)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

MD10061 rshowalter 10/4/01 4:35am

Very often, when checking is refused, all solutions are classified out of existence.

And we need to deal with "how much?" questions, too.

MD10062 rshowalter 10/4/01 10:44am

I'd like to repeat the points in MD10060 rshowalter 10/3/01 3:19pm

gisterme?

kangdawai ?

The motivations behind missile defense, in our dangerous and ugly world, include some plainly serious ones. But to satisfy the needs behind those motivations effectively, we need right answers.

rshowalter - 06:05pm Oct 5, 2001 EST (#10096 of 10111)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

MD9910 rshowalter 9/29/01 4:09pm

I'm thinking about a number of things, and among them the great importance of aesthetics, and aesthetic responses that are culture based, for sorting things out reasonably.

possumdag - 06:13pm Oct 5, 2001 EST (#10097 of 10111)
Possumdag@excite.com

When religious coercion fails - then!

Later technology was brought to the cause!

rshowalter - 06:22pm Oct 5, 2001 EST (#10098 of 10111)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

But now, new technology, especially the internet, is well adapted, if properly used, to serve the cause of TRUTH.

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