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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 - 03:18pm Jul 6, 2003 EST (# 12863 of 12865)
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.

A Final Push for the Bedeviled, Beloved Osprey By LESLIE WAYNE http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/06/business/06CHOP.html is an excellent article, referring to an aircraft that has had many problems ( Cheney tried to kill the program as Secretary of Defense ) where justification of deployment is a close call - depending on technical details - and also some very tough tactical and strategic judgements.

If the United States needs this capability - at this price - ( more than 12 billion has been spent - and 458 Ospreys will cost 48 billion ) then that is a very strong argument that we ought to be working hard to reduce our national dependence on oil.

On this thread, there's been a lot of discussion of Osprey - and sometimes I've even thought it might have been influential discussion. It started with my commented on statements of General James L. Jones - then Commandant of the Marine Corps, now commander of NATO.

http://www.mrshowalter.net/a_md00100s/md978_981.htm http://www.mrshowalter.net/a_md00100s/md982_984.htm http://www.mrshowalter.net/a_md00100s/md985_986.htm

Gen. James L. Jones "disputed the claim of some critics that he and his service have become so enamored of the Osprey that they are blind to its vulnerabilities.

- ``I would resist with all my moral fiber the idea that we would willingly or knowingly try to bring aboard a program -- the V-22 or anything else -- that we've so fallen in love with that we would put people at risk,'' he said. ``We just simply wouldn't do that, and I don't think we've done that.''

- If the Osprey is deemed unsafe, ``I will guarantee you that I will have no reservations whatsoever in recommending a different course''

I expressed concerns. I also wrote General Jones, c/o a Marine Corps web site, sent him a copy of a Kipling poem Soldier an' Sailor Too http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?13@@.ee79f4e/1702 and said why I was doing it:

In the NYT Missile Defense thread, I criticised a US Marine, a man I very much respect who is head of a military force I very much respect. I'm putting a poem I like, about Marines ..

( I like many of Kipling's poems : http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.xw71bnLZnbm.640072@.f28e622/3983

rshow55 - 03:22pm Jul 6, 2003 EST (# 12864 of 12865)
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.

Other links referring to Osprey:

2368 http://www.mrshowalter.net/a_md2000s/md2367.htm

The Osprey program, alone, exceeds Russia's current indebtedness. 12 billion dollars have been spent to build 8 airplanes that cannot, as of now, be flown.

. . . To make peace, people have to find common ground about what happened in the past -- they have to be "reading off the same page" - not feeling the same way about the facts, perhaps, but knowing the same facts.

And, all over the world, in case after case, where there have been hostilites, or threats of them, there have been many, many deceptions, lies, and evasions, going on a long time - _ almost always, on all sides -- and people seem unable to face up to that plain fact.

2405 http://www.mrshowalter.net/a_md2000s/md2405.htm

2411 http://www.mrshowalter.net/a_md2000s/md2411.htm

Exemplary cases of how social groups actually function, small enough to study, large enough to contain all the major difficulties of socio-technical function, ought to be studied.

2587 http://www.mrshowalter.net/a_md2000s/md2587.htm

2631 http://www.mrshowalter.net/a_md2000s/md2629.htm

3507 http://www.mrshowalter.net/a_md2000s/md2739.htm http://www.mrshowalter.net/a_md3000s/md3505.htm

3584 http://www.mrshowalter.net/a_md3000s/md3583.htm

http://www.mrshowalter.net/a_md5000s/md5077.htm

5835 http://www.mrshowalter.net/a_md5000s/md5828.htm

6582-3 http://www.mrshowalter.net/a_md6000s/md6577.htm

6586 http://www.mrshowalter.net/a_md6000s/md6586.htm

7013 http://www.mrshowalter.net/a_md7000s/md7012.htm

http://www.mrshowalter.net/a_md7000s/md7036.htm

7232 http://www.mrshowalter.net/a_md7000s/md7232.htm

7236 http://www.mrshowalter.net/a_md7000s/md7236.htm

7450 http://www.mrshowalter.net/a_md7000s/md7449.htm

"Mystro a drum roll for these big-ticket items in procurement for the military industrial complex: "

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