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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 - 07:37pm Oct 18, 2003 EST (# 15225 of 15228)
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.

from lunarchick -7119-20 <a href="/webin/WebX?14@13.NXXfbCg2PTa.3429037@.f28e622/8642">lunarchick 12/29/02 12:43pm</a>

Truman :

" When the decision is up before you -- and on my desk I have a motto which says The Buck Stops Here' -- the decision has to be made."

In his farewell address to the American people given in January 1953, President Truman referred to this concept very specifically in asserting that, "The President--whoever he is--has to decide. He can't pass the buck to anybody. No one else can do the deciding for him. That's his job . "

Truman | buck stops here | exception handling

http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?BuckStopsHere

If you send a proposal to "where the buck stops" in any organization - you have to be careful. You have to give a proposal that the "top dog" - as he is, where he is, can decide. Especially if you've given a lot of free advice about how things ought to be checked and crosschecked. And talked about convergence, and such. Not that the "top dog" would have time for those details. But staff might.

I didn't get the packet sent off today - and there's no collection tomorrow. Expect it will arrive Tuesday. I'm working on it steadily, but carefully. And I'm happy about how it is shaping up. Hope people with rank I lack are, too.

rshow55 - 07:38pm Oct 18, 2003 EST (# 15226 of 15228)
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.

Found by lchic :

SIR – I had occasion to speak confidentially with Edward Teller during Ronald Reagan's second term (Obituary, September 20th). As he was credited with authorship of the Strategic Defence Initiative (“Star Wars”), I asked him how it came about. He said that Reagan fashioned a bubble with his hands and said, “I wish I could put a protective shield over the country—to keep evil people from doing us harm.” Teller told the president his vision was possible. I asked Teller if it would work. “Now? No,” he said and I asked why. He gave a bored shrug: “The technology doesn't exist.” This was an astounding admission from the chief architect of Star Wars. Though it failed it is still credited with hastening the downfall of the Soviet Union. Teller displayed a profound lack of interest in the morality of launching a massive programme he knew would not work, and an overriding interest in the morality of defeating America's enemies. Grant Stockdale Washington, DC Letters - Economist - Oct 16th 2003 http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=2137572

Bluffing has its uses. But it is a short term solution. More stable solutions would be nice to find - and make work.

rshow55 - 08:57pm Oct 18, 2003 EST (# 15227 of 15228)
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.

Courageous Arab Thinkers By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/19/opinion/19FRIE.html is beautiful.

But there is another tremor shaking the Arab world. This one is being set off by a group of courageous Arab social scientists, who decided, with the help of the United Nations, to begin fighting the war of ideas for the Arab future by detailing just how far the Arab world has fallen behind and by laying out a progressive pathway forward.

2228 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.NXXfbCg2PTa.3429037@.f28e622/2771 refers to

Global Village Idiocy By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/12/opinion/12FRIE.html which was summarized by the TIMES as follows:

"Thanks to the Internet and satellite TV, the world is being wired together technologically, but not socially, politically or culturally."

We have to learn to "wire together" the world, socially, politically, and culturally, in the ways that make sense for human welfare -- that is make sense to the people involved.

The internet and other communications media are making that more necessary than before, but also more possible.

Above a certain level of complexity, staffed organizations have to be involved, and there have to be ways, that make sense in context, to check what matters enough.

2229 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.NXXfbCg2PTa.3429037@.f28e622/2772

Last year on this thread, 6/30/01 gisterme asked a big question:

" How do we move towards the future, and not get bogged down in the past, except in ways that are necessary so we can deal with the future?"

" how one can set up a "negotiating game" or "structure" that is illuminating, fair and productive? . . . .

and asked

" How do we move toward a better, fairer, safer future? "

An essential requirement is that we remember core lessons of our past. We live in a society that depends on laws. And promises clearly made, and clearly kept.

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