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 - 05:34pm Aug 11, 2003 EST (# 13282 of 13285)
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.

I wrote a long section on 1623-1624 of a Guardian thread - God is the Projection of Mans Unrealised Potential - Discuss

http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee7b2bd/1792

http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee7b2bd/1793

There's a way of doing business that might be called the "dominant paradigm" in the politics and business affairs of the advanced countries. I respect the pattern, but find it dangerously incomplete .

A writer loyal to that way of doing business is Bob Woodward - and a master of that way of doing business, for many, many years, was Senator Robert Dole, who ran against Clinton in 1996. In Woodward's The Choice - there's this in Chapter 5:

" In Dole's Majority Leader Office in the Senate . . Sheila Burke, his chief of staff for the last ten years and an aide for eight years before that, was watching as Dole moved with studied indirectness toward running. She wasn't surprised. She knew as well as anyone that Dole rarely made a definitive decision. In here 18 years with him, she had never once heard Dole say "Here's what we're doing." He never, never, never made a committment until first taking little steps and dropping hints about where he was heading. The signals would mount: grunts, half sentences, a growl of displeasure, a thumb-up of approval. Eventually, he created a foregone conclusion. The cumulative effect - putting a structure in place, having meetings and discussion go on and on around him, asking important questions, watching others, warily testing the waters - eventually equalled a decision.

I sometimes wonder why, after the postcard described here was sent, things weren't handled more directly.

http://www.mrshowalter.net/LtToSenateStffrWSulzbergerNoteXd.html

Senator Dole might not have wondered. Bob Woodward might not have wondered either - though he might have. Indirection has advantages -but disadvantages, too. Heirarchies have advantages - but disadvantages, too.

http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee7b2bd/1792 also quotes another passage by Woodward on Sheila Burke - which says some things about loyalty - and inflexibilities that can come with it.

13280 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.paU7bfTJxO9.2863960@.f28e622/14966 includes a phrase that I'm modifying here. It is only a conjecture, but I find it interesting. If others follow this thread, they may, as well:

"Are there people making decisions about Robert Showalter who may not wish to kill him, may appreciate some things he's doing, may not doubt the essence of anything he says, or anyway, not much, but don't want him "running around without reasonable constraints" either?"

A lot of people, over a lot of years, have discussed such problems - often directly with me. My mamma did. Eisenhower did. Casey did. Not so surprising, really - a lot of people think of a lot of other people in that sort of way.

Sometimes, there are good solutions.

A reader of this thread might guess that people care about it. 1235-7 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.paU7bfTJxO9.2863960@.f28e622/1581

Some days, it seems to me that I'm not only trying do keep my promises to Eisenhower - but actually having some success. 8419 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.paU7bfTJxO9.2863960@.f28e622/9946

fredmoore - 05:44pm Aug 11, 2003 EST (# 13283 of 13285)

Aooooooowww!

http://www.Ababy'sgotmydingo.com/ayresrock/dinnertime.htm

Awooooooo .....

(2 following messages)

New York Times on the Web Forums Science Missile Defense