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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?

rshowalter - 01:50pm Jun 11, 2001 EST (#4748 of 4753)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

And with "facts" and "models" matched against things in more ways, and in the open . . MOVING MORE SAFELY in areas where right answers could hardly matter more.

rshowalter - 02:04pm Jun 11, 2001 EST (#4749 of 4753)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

I bet reporters who were given clear, supported arguments that their pieces were biased would pay some attention - not deference, but attention.

And people who argued that there was bias might have their mind changed in some cases, as well.

In public -- but in a pattern that wasn't too public.

Technically, the costs are minimal, and headed lower pretty quickly.

rshowalter - 02:24pm Jun 11, 2001 EST (#4750 of 4753)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Now, arguments between people of different views are sometimes unanswered because there is no workable mechanism for answering - with reasonable costs to the parties involved.

Internet based comments on published articles would provide the mechanism in important areas where discussion in now closed off.

And a better mechanism than the "storm-trooper school" (as I'd regard it, going back to some earlier reading of mine about Nazi procedures that worked so well for subverting German culture) described today in Blaine Harden's article:

In Virginia, Young Conservatives Learn How to Develop and Use Their Political Voices http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/11/politics/11CONS.html

Statements that might not be right, could be discussed at the level of specifics and generalities, together, in such an internet-enabled comment format. For instance, according to Harden's story

" Based on its recent direct-mail campaign, one of the institute's primary fund-raising strategies is to convince conservative donors that its graduates can neutralize what it regards as left-leaning news media.

" Liberal media bias is out of control," said the letter, which was mailed over Mr. Watts's signature, but which Mr. Blackwell said was written at the institute. "It's indecent. It's time you and I did something about it."

Well, is there indecency here? Are there tactics here that ought to be discussed? I think so.

With the internet, and a little ingenuity, the mechanisms for that discussion could be provided.

And enough matching could be done to go a long way toward separating facts and valid statements from lies and distortions.

rshowalter - 02:33pm Jun 11, 2001 EST (#4751 of 4753)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Some background to the feature on Dark Side of U.S. Quest for Security: Squalor on an Atoll by HOWARD W. FRENCH offers examples of a story that could be discussed - and discussed well, within the internet format. The tradition of the installation being covered, which goes back many years, has things to say about nuclear policy, and reasons for discomfort that various nation states can reasonably have.

The installation described carries on an isolated and uniterrupted tradition from the first atomic tests. It is interesting, and revealing, to see how self indulgent and ruthless that tradition is.

The resemblence, to me, to Major Strasser and other Nazi figures in Casablanca is stunning.

MD3383 rshowalter 5/6/01 8:36pm ... MD3384 rshowalter 5/6/01 8:37pm
and especially MD 3385 rshowalter 5/6/01 8:41pm ... which reads in part:

"I've already used Casablance as a model for talking about nuclear terror in Psychwar, Casablanca -- and terror http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee7a163/0 -- in detail from postings 13 to 23 . The movie shows a good deal about how human animals work in society, in peace and conflict, and I try to set that out.

"Two of the reasons I liked Casablanca aren't in the text of the Guardian thread now. I've used one point already -- that at the end, a really guilty man, Captain Renault, turns over a new leaf, and nobody seems to think much about what justice to Renault might be - a bad man gets off. . . . .

"The other point about Casablanca , that I didn't mention before, but find very helpful, is that there isn't any mention of allusion to anti-semitism in the movie. Major Strasser and the other Germans are objectionable because they are merciless bullies. They are liked no better because of their evident discipline, sharpness, and competence. The American military, and military-industrial complex, seen through foreign eyes, looks much too much like the German military looks in Casablanca. I believe that this is an essential aesthetic and practical point. I believe that it needs to be understood in America, as it is already understood in much of the rest of the world.

rshowalter - 02:36pm Jun 11, 2001 EST (#4752 of 4753)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Refusing to Save Africans by BOB HERBERT http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/11/opinion/11HERB.html brings very similar thoughts to mind.

It seems very easy for some "good conservatives" to dismiss people as unworthy -- worthy only of death.

Death by the millions. And it is easy for "good conservatives" to place other "good conservatives" in positions to see that the death happens.

Especially when the alternative might take a little understanding, or work.

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