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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?

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rshow55 - 02:21pm Jul 17, 2003 EST (# 13043 of 13047)
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 mistakes are more "honest" than others

10761 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.LmCQb8K4rS2.2489@.f28e622/12311

. . . what "feels right," most often, is what, in our minds "cooperates with the interests of authority - with our group." Look at Pritchard's notes on Milgram's experiment - and on Jonestown - to get a sense of how wrong it feels, for most people, to go against authority. http://www.uwinnipeg.ca/~epritch1/social98a.html

. . . .

Sometimes, it strains credulity to call a mistake an "honest mistake" -

Senator Says White House Wanted Iraq Uranium Claim By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-US-Iraq.html

After a point, leaders who recieve bad advice that is consistently bad advice must be judged to want that advice - and be responsible for it.

10765 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.LmCQb8K4rS2.2489@.f28e622/12315

Delusions of Power By PAUL KRUGMAN http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/28/opinion/28KRUG.html cites a wonderful phrase:

. "incestuous amplification" defined by Jane's Defense Weekly as "a condition in warfare where one only listens to those who are already in lock-step agreement, reinforcing set beliefs and creating a situation ripe for miscalculation."

"Incestuous amplification" can lead to ornate , internally consistent and convincing systems of ideas - virtual maps. That are not totally "honest" mistakes.

. . . .

This goes well beyond any reasonably possible definition of an honest mistake - President Bush talks to Tenet, or reads papers from him, every day. Bush could not have been "decieved" by Tenant here.

Senator Says White House Wanted Iraq Uranium Claim By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-US-Iraq.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- CIA Director George Tenet told members of Congress a White House official insisted that President Bush's State of the Union address include an assertion about Saddam Hussein's nuclear intentions that had not been verified, a Senate Intelligence Committee member said Thursday.

Sen. Dick Durbin, who was present for a 4 1/2-hour appearance by Tenet behind closed doors with Intelligence Committee members Wednesday, said Tenet named the official. But the Illinois Democrat said that person's identity could not be revealed because of the confidentiality of the proceedings.

``He (Tenet) certainly told us who the person was who was insistent on putting this language in which the CIA knew to be incredible, this language about the uranium shipment from Africa,'' Durbin said on ABC's ``Good Morning America.''

``And there was this negotiation between the White House and the CIA about just how far you could go and be close to the truth and unfortunately those sixteen words were included in the most important speech the president delivers in any given year,'' Durbin added.

White House Aide Behind Uranium Claim, Senator Says By CARL HULSE http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/17/international/worldspecial/17CND-INTEL.html?hp

Democratic member of the Senate Intelligence Committee said today that a White House official insisted that claims about Iraqi attempts to purchase uranium be included in President Bush's State of the Union address, despite doubts from the Central Intelligence Agency about its credibility.

As the Senate continued to trade charges over the handling of classified information related to the war in Iraq, Senator Richard Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, told fellow senators today that people in the White House were "bound and determined" to include the allegation in the address, despite being discouraged by George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence.

13027-30 http://forums.nytim/

rshow55 - 02:22pm Jul 17, 2003 EST (# 13044 of 13047)
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.

13027-30 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.LmCQb8K4rS2.2489@.f28e622/14703

If "people in the White House were "bound and determined" to include the allegation in the address" that has to mean that George W. Bush intended to mislead the American people.

jorian319 - 04:12pm Jul 17, 2003 EST (# 13045 of 13047)

Can we do a better job of flailing? YES! Write to Fredmoore for a list of things he and I have done to keep this thread's damage to a minimum.

http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.LmCQb8K4rS2.2489@.f28e622/14719

Woah there, Robbie! Methinks what we need here is a few more links.

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