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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 - 07:14am Aug 26, 2003 EST (# 13402 of 13417)
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.

rshow55 - 04:58pm Aug 13, 2003 EST (# 13292 of... by gisterme - Aug 14, 03 (#13297 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.yL4hbg7OBSq.0@.f28e622/14983

Directory: http://www.mrshowalter.net/_Aug_14_03___13301.htm

"...someone stole our tent." Have mercy... by gisterme - Aug 14, 03 (#13305 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.yL4hbg7OBSq.0@.f28e622/14992

"I believe leaders do have to have the power to... by gisterme - Aug 20, 03 (#13336 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.yL4hbg7OBSq.0@.f28e622/15027

- - - - - - - - -

I've been honored to have had the chance to post on this thread - and have been especially honored that someone who seems to have high connections to the Bush administration (or who works hard to simulate them) - has given the thread the time and attention that gisterme has.

Between March 2001 and March 1, 2002, gisteme posted about 750 times, and since March 1, 2002 he's posted about 520 more times.

rshow55 - 07:36am Aug 26, 2003 EST (# 13403 of 13417)
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.

Listing gisterme's postings was clumsy in some ways - but useful in others. Resortings take time - take resources -but they can make it possible to see things and do things that would be impossible without the sortings. To be sure you're right before going ahead - - can take some careful sorting.

For example, on statistical grounds I am sure that gisterme cares about this thread - and some other able people do, too.

Resortings can permit reframings , and we could use some.

Gisterme and I have often argued - but he's aware of the need of reframing on some issues, and by his lights, works at it - or he wouldn't have posted as much as he had on this board.

13379 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.yL4hbg7OBSq.0@.f28e622/15070

We're in a mess. With some reframings and resortings - we could do somewhat better - we need to be both conservative, about what we have and have working - and open minded about possibilities for change.

On 5 January, 2003 - there was a very good editorial Wizard's Chess http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/05/opinion/05SUN1.html

I've cited it many times - and a search of those cites links to a good deal.

Here's a quote from Wizard's Chess that is both right and wrong - and bears thinking about.

"When vital national interests are at stake, both consistency and moral certainty need to yield to the realities of a complex and interlocking world."

That's worth thinking about - but not something to accept without looking at it a number of ways - and again and again - seeking better answers in patterns that can converge (with logic and checking together.)

moral certainty and consistency and consideration of REAL interests are VITALLY important in a complex and interlocking world.

I have a lot of respect for gisterme , though my feelings are mixed. But he, and other people - have some logical problems - and so do most if not all other people.

If we're to do better - we have to think more carefully - and more honestly about what fits.

jorian319 - 08:35am Aug 26, 2003 EST (# 13404 of 13417)

Jeez, Showalter - twenty pages of links to pages full of links. Do you really imagine that ANYONE is so enraptured by this thread that they'd take a day off to actually READ that stuff? What are the chances of that?