New York Times on the Web Forums Science

Missile Defense

Russian military leaders have expressed concern about US plans for a national missile defense system. Will defense technology be limited by possibilities for a strategic imbalance? Is this just SDI all over again?

evert17 - 05:30pm Jun 8, 2001 EST (#4631 of 4636)

Missle defense is pointless and dangerous. We should work harder on improving our relations with the rest of the world, and on improving our intelligence when it comes to knowing what our adversaries are up to. Missle defense is likely to provoke an arms race starting with the Chinese reaction and traveling west thru India, Pakistan, into the Middle East. The end result is that we will be less safe than we are now, after having spent hundreds of billions of dollars.

possumdag - 06:03pm Jun 8, 2001 EST (#4632 of 4636)
Possumdag@excite.com

Peace is a M I N D game not an inventory!

possumdag - 06:06pm Jun 8, 2001 EST (#4633 of 4636)
Possumdag@excite.com

Showalter ... noted ref to Aussie above .. Aussie may be peopled by 20million .. but they have get up and go - and DO - solar 'walking on water' .. "She's a breeze!"

rshowalter - 07:15pm Jun 8, 2001 EST (#4634 of 4636)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Some basic decencies ought to be remembered.
MD4569 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?14@184.4lICaXi5pSH^388264@.f0ce57b/4881... MD3662 rshowalter 5/10/01 5:42pm
MD4570 rshowalter 6/7/01 6:53pm ... MD4571 rshowalter 6/7/01 6:54pm ...

rshowalter - 07:16pm Jun 8, 2001 EST (#4635 of 4636)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Chain Breakers: http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee79f4e/618

Secular Redemption: http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?13@@.ee79f4e/619

rshowalter - 07:20pm Jun 8, 2001 EST (#4636 of 4636)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

A US policy that is the negation of the golden rule.
MD4135 rshowalter 5/22/01 5:52am

Professor Harry J. Gensler has great references, and sets out a great deal that is clear and conventional in http://www.jcu.edu/philosophy/gensler/goldrule.htm

Nobody applies the golden rule at all times - that would be too much to ask, and boring. But complex cooperation, peace, and simple safety require that we know enough that we could choose to apply the golden rule, in a particular instance, if we chose to - without making big mistakes.

With the internet, it is becoming possible, with work, to learn enough to make complex cooperation possible between groups of people who previously could not communicate at all.

In important ways, Russians and Americans don't communicate at all - something this thread illustrates. Some of the work needed for workable contact is illustrated on this thread. Some degree of understanding, on a few matters, has been achieved, between a few people. It takes a lot of talking, and listening, back and forth.

Detail, and the Golden Rule http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee83429/37

New York Times on the Web Forums Science Missile Defense