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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?

Read Debates, a new Web-only feature culled from Readers' Opinions, published every Thursday.

lchic - 02:36am Feb 20, 2002 EST (#11652 of 11662)

90 people a day lost to bullets in the USA

Americans have a history of being less careless with their Presidents:
James Brady said 670,000 Americans have been killed by firearms since March 30, 1981, the day he and President Reagan were shot. (30March2001 CBSNews)

If the country can't look after 'Homelanders' .. how can it be expected to 'lead' the world?

lchic - 06:06am Feb 20, 2002 EST (#11653 of 11662)

Nazi 101?
~~~~~~~~~

If the Bush inner circle had a higher regard for journalism, and for the role of truth in public affairs, it would understand how repellent it is for the American government to hide the truth, delay the facts or peddle phony stories to news organizations overseas http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/20/opinion/20DOWD.html

lchic - 06:43am Feb 20, 2002 EST (#11654 of 11662)

C O N G R E S S -- Why does it sit back and just let it all happen?

rshow55 - 07:15am Feb 20, 2002 EST (#11655 of 11662)

For the same reason that Enron, and the procedures common to Enron and much else "happened." People were permitted to do things out of proportion to reasonable responsibilities, and permitted to fake "accounting" -- put forward fake accounts, deceptive ideas, and embrace deceptively "ideals" different from the real ones.

We have a situation that is way, way out of control. In large part, because of the "political technology" Ralph Reed explained to Enron so clearly.

We need accounting and accountability. Congress needs to FEEL this responsibility - and for that to happen, the American people are going to have to ask for that responsibility.

Some things have to be explained, and the truth can't be "somehow, too weak".

This Missile Defense thread is extensive, and represents an effort to set down, using techniques the internet makes possible, an open corpus, with many crosslinks, adapted to assist in the focusing of a complex, difficult issue toward closure. It is set up as a prototype - illustrating patterns that may be useful for communication between staffed organizations.

MD690 rshowalter 2/14/01 4:16pm seems particularly appropriate here.

A fairly compact ongoing summary of this thread from September 25, 2000 to date, which is too large for easy reading, but not for sampling, is set out with many links in Psychwar, Casablanca, and Terror -- from #151 on. http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee7a163/159

A Summary of postings on this thread from, Sept 25, 2000 to March 1, 2001 (#152-156 in Psychwar, Casablance, and Terror) may be worth review - because we need not only accounting for money, but some sense of context, too. After March 1, 20001, Almarst joined this forum, and has been very productive.

rshow55 - 07:32am Feb 20, 2002 EST (#11656 of 11662)

That Summary of Postings is also set out on this thread:

MD813 rshowalter 3/1/01 4:08pm ... MD814 rshowalter 3/1/01 4:12pm
MD815 rshowalter 3/1/01 4:14pm ... MD816 rshowalter 3/1/01 4:25pm
MD817 rshowalter 3/1/01 4:27pm ... MD818 rshowalter 3/1/01 4:32pm

Shortly afterwards, almarst joined the forum
MD827 armel7 3/4/01 3:04pm ... MD828 rshowalter 3/4/01 3:22pm
MD829 almarstel2001 3/5/01 12:17am

rshow55 - 12:17pm Feb 20, 2002 EST (#11657 of 11662)

Some more recent summaries and key passages on this thread.

MD8062 rshowalter 8/23/01 4:34pm ... MD8063 rshowalter 8/23/01 4:35pm
MD8064 rshowalter 8/23/01 4:36pm ... MD8065 rshowalter 8/23/01 4:36pm
MD8066 wrcooper 8/23/01 4:39pm ... MD8067 rshowalter 8/23/01 4:41pm
MD8068 rshowalter 8/23/01 4:42pm ... MD8069 rshowalter 8/23/01 4:43pm
MD8070 rshowalter 8/23/01 5:45pm ... MD8071 rshowalter 8/23/01 7:49pm
MD8072 lunarchick 8/23/01 8:03pm ... MD8073 rshowalter 8/23/01 8:18pm

Of course, much has happened since September 11th -- but fundamental things remain vital -- perhaps more vital to our freedom and security than before.

The emotive slogan in "Superman" comics, and movies, is

. Truth, justice, and the American way . . .

For any workable way of life, truth has to be fundamental-- because decisions have to be made, and people have to be able to cooperate and act in good faith.

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