New York Times on the Web Forums Science

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 - 01:20pm Jun 7, 2003 EST (# 12371 of 12383)
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.

fredmoore' http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.e6iObxbhdkc.800484@.f28e622/14019 quotes Lincoln. Here's another Lincoln quote - this time from June 16, 1858 - it is on an intro page of Elliot Richardson's Reflections of a Radical Moderate :

"If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it."

Lincoln, the railroad lawyer, would have understood a lot of problems we have today that are technical better than most leaders and lawyers now alive.

Eisenhower had problems with truth - and knew it and worried about it. He had to use deception - and did - but worried about the consequences - and made some mistakes. Fewer mistakes than his successors. It is worth mentioning that Richard Nixon, "tricky dick" was mentored by Eisenhower - and a great deal of what Nixon did, good and bad (including Watergate) had to do with that mentoring, and its limitations.

Truth Is the First Casualty. Is Credibility the Second? By STEVEN R. WEISMAN http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/08/weekinreview/08WEIS.html is excellent and timely.

rshow55 - 01:22pm Jun 7, 2003 EST (# 12372 of 12383)
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.

We have problems with exception handling - and have for a long, long time. They've always been dangerous and expensive - and remain so.

I'm afraid, and having some problems controlling my anger - trying to do things I promised.

We can do better than we've done - more comfortably, more honestly, as a technical matter - without anybody having to become a saint.

But there are some very dark facts, that Eisenhower and many others of his generation took for granted, but concealed, that need to be faced more clearly.

Often enough, the right answer for one purpose is just the wrong one for another thing - and both objectives have to be served.

When that happens - clear rules and articulations - with switching patterns that can be thought of as "switching rules" or "exception handling" - are necessary for good function.

It isn't true in general that "you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't."

On a lot of things you can "have it both ways" with articulated organizations, or good switching - but you can't have it both ways at exactly the same place or exactly the same time.

If the decision making goes wrong - you can be "damned every which way" - and intractably unless you understand what the systems involved actually are and do.

Eisenhower didn't like to be "The Music Man" but often had to be. After the election of 1960, his administration - which, indirectnesses and all, was mostly dedicated to "the virtues certified public accountants esteem" was succeeded by an administration, called "Camelot" dedicated to theatricality - and a lot has gone wrong since. Not all of it entertainingly.

lchic - 02:52pm Jun 7, 2003 EST (# 12373 of 12383)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

Camelot - got shot

wrt

"" ... question

"Where would you like to be placed if you could slide back to 1938?"

is a fascinating one ""

the only answer has to be ...

1918

For it was the close of the Great War that was the preset for WWII

http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/1918p.html

lchic - 03:24pm Jun 7, 2003 EST (# 12374 of 12383)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

"" only tyrants can convert personal taste into public policy

http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/features/story/0,11710,971351,00.html

(9 following messages)

New York Times on the Web Forums Science Missile Defense