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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 - 10:09am Mar 30, 2003 EST (# 10768 of 10779)
Can we do a better job of finding truth? YES. Click "rshow55" for some things Lchic and I have done and worked for on this thread.

Some of the thing you say of Bush could apply, in varying degrees, to anyone - and it is really scary that people trust their leaders as much as they do.

Now, for all I know, I'm playing a "video game" - a little like those described by VERLYN KLINKENBORG http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/16/opinion/16MON4.html

" every human activity, serious or playful, eventually ramifies into a world of its own, a self-contained cosmos of enormous complexity."

Maybe the assumptions I've made are no more than "video game" assumptions.

But if my assumptions are right - and Gisterme is either Bush, or a responsible person close to him - there's a good deal to hope for. Because Gisterme - for all the faults and swagger - does try to do the right thing - and does often look at evidence.

A lot of very good, workable, simple arrangements in the world have been worked out by "jerks" - and essentially all of them have been made by people who have made a lot of mistakes.

Human beings, for all their fallibilities, do often settle on things that work well - and can even, in very restricted areas, get absolutely right answers (for a particular, defined purpose.)

I'm terribly concerned, but have quite a lot of hope, too.

Successive approximations often do converge 7807 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@93.V8RuaYDr0Q4^895428@.f28e622/9332 may seem off-point to some, but feels right to post for me. It starts:

Does anybody know how a digital volt meter works - or how other digital instruments work?

and ends

We can do a lot better than we have - and I'm doing my best to show some things that have to be shown carefully.

It is a fact that some procedures can do a job millions or billions of times faster than other procedures - sometime people can, and do improve things by a LOT.

Some matters of structure - of orderliness, symmetry, and harmoniousness - are worth remembering. Especially when folks are stumped.

How far would we be, now, from some very good outcomes? It seems to me that if people just "took the jump" - and finally decided that when it mattered enough - things needed to be checked to closure we could do a lot better than we're doing - from practically everybody's point of view.

bbbuck - 10:12am Mar 30, 2003 EST (# 10769 of 10779)

Uhhhhhh. Sheeesh....

Let me axe you sumtin alarmist2003.

Do you think spamming your opinion at the velocity of 20-40 posts a day is accomplishing anything?

At this time our reading group consists of 'about' 7 people [We've picked up a couple on new posters][yea!!!!] and what with robcatchaduh22burg and rsho-like-to-post-walter55, and lchic spamming crap about like you.

I just don't think I can take much more.

I beg of you kind sir please stop your 'post bombing campaign'.

rshow55 - 10:21am Mar 30, 2003 EST (# 10770 of 10779)
Can we do a better job of finding truth? YES. Click "rshow55" for some things Lchic and I have done and worked for on this thread.

Russia Sees a Chance to Get Some Respect By MICHAEL WINES http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/30/weekinreview/30WINE.html

Russia deserves respect. So does the United Nations.

Annan Faces His 'Most Difficult' Moment By FELICITY BARRINGER http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/30/international/worldspecial/30NATI.html

As Kofi Annan sees it, the time for low profiles is past.

almarst2003 - 10:31am Mar 30, 2003 EST (# 10771 of 10779)

What you call spamming for me is an attempt to counterballance the "officialdom" US media.

I have no illusion to think I can make a big difference. But I have to. unfortunatly there is little else I can do.

I can uderstand some people may disagree with me. I am ready for a honest argument. Others may not understand and ask the specific questions. I am ready to explain and clarify.

It could help if you can identify your position and reasoning in terms other then "Uhhhhhh. Sheeesh...." which can be associated with COBRA rather then "Homo Sapience".

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