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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.

rshow55 - 09:32pm Feb 22, 2002 EST (#11764 of 11781)

In a lot of logical sequences, it would make a difference to show clearly that the "technical foundation" of the Bush administration's "missile defense" is no foundation at all.

It would be practical to do this. The technical facts are clear - and widely understood among experts. The discourse, exposition, and illustration would have to be done -- to the sort of standards that work reliably in courts of law.

If political leaders (who have a stake in truth here) wanted this to happen, it would happen.

rshow55 - 09:41pm Feb 22, 2002 EST (#11765 of 11781)

Issues of concensus matter, and they matter, in practical politics, as they form throughout the world. Not even the United States is comfortable with a "right to lie" when things can be questioned.

If everyone outside the US was convinced of questions of fact -- how long would Americans (who very often make very good decisions) resist the facts? How could they?

This thread, itself, offers plenty of evidence of how much leverage truth has -- and with some force behind such a format -- much more evidence would come.

If political leaders cared -- this subject, and arguments like the arguments here -- would be news - and not an awkward burden on one elite newspaper, running a very awkward, distracting (and expensive) thread, with no direct news outlet, because sufficiently straightforward questions were not being asked.

rshow55 - 09:51pm Feb 22, 2002 EST (#11766 of 11781)

Sometimes things get better. It can happen quickly. Russia is in far better shape than she was last March -- see "Muddle in Moscow" http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=533129 .....

Russia, under Putin's leadership, faced up to problems it actually had, and moved forward in sensible ways.

What would happen if the United States used the resources it had more effectively? What if we made decisions with more of the honesty and competence that the rest of the world hopes for, and expects from America ?

With just a little effort and interest from leaders who seem very concerned about US policy now, we might find out what would happen.

A lot might get better. The problems may be big, but the number of muddles and mistakes involved is fairly small.

I have a date. Back tomorrow morning, my time. Out.

almarst-2001 - 10:46pm Feb 22, 2002 EST (#11767 of 11781)

Thomas Friedman has achieved another media triumph with the debut of "Tom's Journal" on the "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer - http://www.fair.org/media-beat/020221.html

"A passage from Friedman's 1999 book "The Lexus and the Olive Tree" sums up his overarching global perspective: "The hidden hand of the market will never work without a hidden fist. McDonald's cannot flourish without McDonnell Douglas, the designer of the U.S. Air Force F-15. And the hidden fist that keeps the world safe for Silicon Valley's technologies to flourish is called the U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps."

Friedman has been a zealous advocate of "bombing Iraq, over and over and over again" (in the words of a January 1998 column). Three years ago, when he offered a pithy list of prescriptions for Washington's policymakers, it included: "Blow up a different power station in Iraq every week, so no one knows when the lights will go off or who's in charge."

Sometimes, Friedman fixates on four words in particular. "My motto is very simple: Give war a chance," he told Diane Sawyer four months ago on "Good Morning America." It was the same motto that he'd used two and a half years earlier in a Fox News interview. Different war; different enemy; different network; same solution. "

"In the spring of 1999, as bombardment of Yugoslavia went on, Friedman recycled "Give war a chance" from one column to another. "Twelve days of surgical bombing was never going to turn Serbia around," he wrote in early April. "Let's see what 12 weeks of less than surgical bombing does. Give war a chance."

Robert. Isn't Mr. Friedman the one you suggested to respect?

almarst-2001 - 11:09pm Feb 22, 2002 EST (#11768 of 11781)

COLUMBIA: THE TRUTH

As the oligarchic government of Andres Pestrana, at the beck and call of the imperialistic USA, unilaterally breaks off the peace talks with FARC and invades the demilitarised zone, FARC explains the real situation in Columbia to Pravda.Ru. More details... - http://english.pravda.ru/main/2002/02/22/26597.html

almarst-2001 - 11:16pm Feb 22, 2002 EST (#11769 of 11781)

Thomas L. Friedman (A Moderated Forum) Share your thoughts on recent Op-Ed columns by Thomas Friedman.

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ISN'T IT A SHAME?

almarst-2001 - 11:18pm Feb 22, 2002 EST (#11770 of 11781)

The Bush Family - http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/bush.html

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