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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.

gisterme - 12:53am Jun 30, 2003 EST (# 12745 of 12754)

lchic - 05:03am Jun 29, 2003 EST (# 12731 of ...)

"...Yesterday-Man, Today, Tomorrow ... when former wrongs are met with sorrow

"...Yet detour back to caves and apes ---- delousing parties in their breaks!"

Nice poem, lchic; but what a fatalistic ending! Don't think I'm criticizing your poem; but the last line you wrote is so much different to the last line I might have written. Had I composed that lovely poem the last two lines micht have been:

"...Yesterday-Man, Today, Tomorrow ... when former wrongs are met with sorrow.

And former "rights" our guiding lights."

I'd say that the difference of outcomes demonstrates and sums up our generally different ways of looking at the world, lchic,...all in a single line.

Once again, please forgive me for messing with your poem.

gisterme - 02:05am Jun 30, 2003 EST (# 12746 of 12754)

lchic - 05:28am Jun 29, 2003 EST (# 12732 of ...) <a href="/webin/WebX?14@13.wqtHbjeul4M.1198417@.f28e622/14402">lchic 6/29/03 5:28am</a>

"...The Humanities camp says the interpersonal skills are the ones that enable imagination .... that's ideas ... to propagate ... and looking forwards - looking back ... it's ideas that differenciate humans from the herd...

And yet guys like Beethoven, Edison, Einstein and Newton were not men who were particularly known for their great interpersonal skills. I think the "humanities camp" may be oversimplifyng just a bit. :-) Don't you?

"...Neglect and devaluation of the liberal arts lead to demoralisation and distress ...."

Perhaps. But neglect and devalution of the things that can help a person be able to cope in the real world after they graduate, let's call those "conservative arts", can lead to far worse than demoralization and distess.

"...human interactions are the oil that smooths the wheels of progress .... helping folks ultimately to get ahead faster..."

Well, a four-year liberal arts degree alone just about qualifies the graduate to be a burger-flipper these days. I think that, athough they may have learned a lot, what they have learened is so unrelated to survival in society that service industry jobs are about all they're qualified to do. There is a big dose of human interaction involved in all of those kinds of jobs, and ironically, those are just the sort of jobs can be pursued with a high school diploma.

I don't think we need to devalue liberal arts at all to improve education. We just need to include enough "conservative" arts in the curriculum to ensure that the four-year graduate has received the basic tools that can help with success in the real world. After all, not all want, qualify or can afford to immediately go on to further education.

gisterme - 02:34am Jun 30, 2003 EST (# 12747 of 12754)

"...If the staffed organizations of nation states were to read these summaries of my work on this thread from its beginning, with a "willing suspension of disbelief" about my involvement with Eisenhower they might give the postings more weight..."

Eisenhower? When did he get involved? Let's see...you're a few years older than I am. That would have made you about thirteen or fourteen years old when Eisenhower left office. I must have missed that part about Eisenhower. What was you're unbelievable involvement with him? What happened to Bill Casey? There's a good bit of suspension of disbelief needed there too.

"... - though the arguments wouldn't change all..."

Sorry, Robert, but in my view "the arguments" are exactly why there's no interest; not because any disbelief has to be suspended...and I can't see where "the arguments" have changed anything, let alone "all". No matter how impressively huge a volume of words is, it doesn't mean much if it doesn't say much. Check out the Gettysburg address if you want an example of how just a few words can say much. There's not doubt that it wouldn't hurt me to look at that again myself with the same idea in mind. :-)

"...And the extent of the work, by lchic , the NYT, and other posters would not change at all..."

Of course not. That's all history. It can't be changed. What's the point of saying that?

I have to admit that somtimes I have trouble making sense of what you say, Robert. Most of the time I really do try. :-)

gisterme - 02:44am Jun 30, 2003 EST (# 12748 of 12754)

rshow55 - 01:10pm Jun 29, 2003 EST (# 12743 of ...) http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.wqtHbjeul4M.1198417@.f28e622/14414

"...I set out to do jobs where my own power would be limited - in some ways, nonexistent.

You seem to have already acheived what you set out to do, Robert. Keep up the good work.

"...But the assumption was that I would be able to communicate effectively with power..."

Whose assumption was that? Yours? So, ummm, when are you going to start?

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