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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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lchic - 08:21pm Nov 8, 2003 EST (# 16967 of 16986)
ultimately TRUTH outs : TRUTH has to be morally forcing : build on TRUTH it's a strong foundation

Arab states must liberalise, empower women: Powell (AFP)

8 November 2003

DUBAI - Arab countries should democratise, remove political and economic barriers and allow greater participation of women, US Secretary of State Colin Powell tells Arabian Business magazine in an interview to be published this week.

“I believe the Arab world is a place of enormous potential, enormous promise. But it needs a lot of help and it needs to help itself,” Powell says in the December issue of the Dubai-based monthly.

“It needs to help itself by opening up its political system to greater participation to all segments of society, particularly women.”

Powell’s comments follow President George Bush’s call on Thursday on Arab countries to democratise.

The secretary adds that Arab states should re-evaluate their educational systems. He goes to pains to convey what he says he believes is an impartial foreign policy towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“Nobody wants to see the Israeli-Palestinian conflict resolved more than I do. No Arab wants to see that resolved as much as I do. No Israeli wants to see it resolved as much as I do. That is our goal,” he says.

Many in the Arab world accuse America of double standards, lacking the moral high ground to advocate reform and Powell acknowledges he does not have an easy task.

“We can’t impose democracy by fiat. It is not for us to tell any Arab nation what kind of system it must have. They have to decide that. But I think we can make a pretty persuasive case that democracy is as applicable to an Arab nation as it is to any nation in the Western hemisphere,” says Powell.

In an apparent reference to Saudi Arabia, Powell says some countries governed by a ruling family will have to acknowledge the necessity of opening up.

“People will see and the leaders will see that they have to start opening up their societies. They will not be able to afford to have 50 percent of their society - women - not participate in civil life or in the economic and political life of the country,” he says.

On Iraq’s constitution, the secretary says it is vital that Iraqis draft it themselves. “It’s got to be their product, not a ‘made in USA’ product.”

Stopping short of saying the US may have underestimated the guerilla war, which has killed around 150 US soldiers since Bush declared major combat over, Powell acknowledges things have not gone according to plan.

“We didn’t expect the entire civil structure of Iraq to collapse, the army, the political system, the ministries, all of which were destroyed or burnt down, the police gone, everything gone, and now we are responding to that and we are building up these institutions.”

Confronted by the Arab journalist interviewing him about being fingerprinted and photographed on arrival in the US, the secretary says he understands the offence Arabs take but that it is necessary.

“I would hate it too. I would find it insulting and I would find it degrading. But when you have found that your system is so porous, that people could come in and do what they did on 9/11, we had an obligation to our people ... I don’t like hearing these stories ... and we’re trying to find the right balance.”

http://www.khaleejtimes.co.ae/

English on line Newspapers

http://www.inkdrop.net/dave/news.html

lchic - 08:24pm Nov 8, 2003 EST (# 16968 of 16986)
ultimately TRUTH outs : TRUTH has to be morally forcing : build on TRUTH it's a strong foundation

Cantabb - how will the democratisation of women in the Middle East lead to a more stable world - lessening the threat of chaos, breakdown and nuclear attack?

Think about it and get back to us!

lchic - 08:27pm Nov 8, 2003 EST (# 16969 of 16986)
ultimately TRUTH outs : TRUTH has to be morally forcing : build on TRUTH it's a strong foundation

Cantabb - why is important to understand the way other cultures think?

Why did Eisenhower want Showalter to look at the problem of 'talking, negotiating, linking in with the Russians.

Why was that important?

Where did nuclear weapons lie then, and where know - is this an unknown known?

If it's an unknown known - then, in the light of that, how best can the 'advanced economy countries' ensure their own immediate and longer term safety?

Think about it and get back to us later!

lchic - 08:28pm Nov 8, 2003 EST (# 16970 of 16986)
ultimately TRUTH outs : TRUTH has to be morally forcing : build on TRUTH it's a strong foundation

MANGER

option one = baby

option two = dog in a

(16 following messages)

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