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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?

Read Debates, a new Web-only feature culled from Readers' Opinions, published every Thursday.

lchic - 10:27am Sep 26, 2002 EST (# 4557 of 4573)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

"" There used to be an unspoken convention that retired political leaders by and large should stay out of the way on contemporary political debate.

That convention has been bent quite often in recent years, but even so, the letter, published today in most newspapers around the nation, is still extraordinary.

It's signed by three former prime ministers and two former leaders of the opposition -- one of them also a former governor-general -- from both major political parties, two former chiefs of the defence force, one former chief of the navy, and another retired general who's now the President of the RSL.

It warns bluntly that if Australia were to commit forces to an attack on Iraq without the backing of a specific UN Security Council resolution, it would constitute, and I quote, "a failure of the duty of government to protect the integrity and ensure the security of our nation".

http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/s686841.htm

Interview with Bob Hawke former Australian Prime Minister.

lchic - 03:13pm Sep 26, 2002 EST (# 4558 of 4573)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

Creativity - Think about this:

Life is richer for the contribution of composers and musicians who speak across the languages and cultures.

The great composers of their day have gone on to enrich and influence music and song long after their passing.

Music takes and gives of itself.

Fusion is the future product that takes and blends styles.

It's impossible to remove the traces of major composers - they live on in direct, obtuse and subtle ways.

Lets replace create with invent. Composers invent their music. The music of later composers alludes back to 'unique' styles.

In the same way that we can't erase a composer - we can't erase invention. Inventions have to run their course.

What we don't know, and can only surmise, is - how much music, how much invention has been lost to us because the insights and creativity of some individuals has been denied.

People lost to war, and those prematurely lost.

People denied education and opportunity.

People with creative ideas and invention that can benefit and change socio-technical history ... be they allowed to surface and shine.

commondata - 03:43pm Sep 26, 2002 EST (# 4559 of 4573)

Because there's always two sides to a coin.

What we don't know, and can only surmise, is - how much music, how much invention has resulted from despair and darkness.

[singing "we shall overcome..." maybe]

lchic - 03:57pm Sep 26, 2002 EST (# 4560 of 4573)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

Once a match

but not any more - thanks to invention!

rshow55 - 04:01pm Sep 26, 2002 EST (# 4561 of 4573)
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 was intended to "surface and shine" - - and some very smart, well intentioned people thought and worked long and hard to set me up in a situation where I had a chance to really perform.

In some ways, it has worked well. In others, it has been a total nightmare, for me and others.

If my teachers knew their stuff (and sometimes I think they did) they knew this:

Sometimes maximum pressure - including fear -- can work wonders.

But for some other things - there has to be enough tranquility, and enough time.

Some days, lately, I've been thinking that things might be working very well.

That's good reason to get very careful.

And some things have gone very badly.

I wrote this, about interactions with the University of Wisconsin, on Christmas day, 2000 http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee7726f/371

" My own view, now, is that we may be in the middle of the cleanest, neatest, fairest, most beautiful, most bloodless resolution of a paradigm conflict in the history of science. That would be something we could all be proud of ....."

Everything considered, if I'm feeling very optimistic, that might still be true. But what a nightmare it has been - because I haven't been able to work through some security problems -- for me - for UW, and for a guy I spent some time with yesterday - who was left waiting - because I was in a box.

But the security problems are getting less. I've been keeping my promises - and as of yesterday, I have no really big secrets that can reasonably be classified left to tell.

(12 following messages)

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