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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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gisterme - 04:10pm Oct 15, 2002 EST (# 4906 of 4916)

gisterme 10/15/02 4:00pm ...continued

"...- And Washington would pick up where Clinton left off, devoting serious political muscle to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Genuine movement in that area would instantly rob the Islamists of one of their greatest recruiting pitches..."

Yeah, a whole lot of problems in Israel/palestine sure did get solved during the Clinton administration didn't they? I'm just having a little trouble recalling just which problems those were that got solved. As I recall, the palestineans were living quite peacefully with the Israelies when Mr. Clinton took office weren't they?

I think that the "hear no evil, see no evil" policy of that past administration is the reason we're at war now. That policy emobldend creatures like Ben Laden to launch their so-called jihad. In my view the current war is necesary to unravel those naive policies.

There will never be peace in Israel/palestine so long as there are folks fomenting jihad. That's because it serves the purpose of jihad to keep that pot boiling.

Bloody men delight in spilling blood especially innocent blood.

gisterme - 04:15pm Oct 15, 2002 EST (# 4907 of 4916)

lchic 10/15/02 10:42am

"...- we are living – whether we know it or not – in a terrifying new age..."

Gee, lchic. That hadn't even occured to me. Wow! I just realized that maybe we call those bad guys terrorists for just that reason! Could that be why we're currently prosecuting a war on terror??? Thanks for the enlightenment, lchic.

ericanderson108 - 05:26pm Oct 15, 2002 EST (# 4908 of 4916)

From http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Oct2002/b10142002_bt520-02.html

The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) announced today it has successfully completed a flight test of the ground-based midcourse defense (GMD) development program, intercepting an intercontinental ballistic missile target. The test took place over the central Pacific Ocean in the Western Test Range. A modified Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile target vehicle was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., at 10 p.m. EDT, and a prototype interceptor was launched 22 minutes later and 4,800 miles away from the Ronald Reagan Missile Site Kwajalein Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. The intercept took place approximately six minutes after the interceptor was launched, at an altitude in excess of 140 miles above the earth, and during the midcourse phase of the target warhead's flight. This was the fifth successful intercept--and the fourth consecutive--in seven flight tests since October 1999 for the GMD program.

gisterme - 05:30pm Oct 15, 2002 EST (# 4909 of 4916)

ericanderson108 10/15/02 5:26pm

"...This was the fifth successful intercept--and the fourth consecutive--in seven flight tests since October 1999 for the GMD program..."

Hmmm. Looks like it's now five out of seven. Not bad for a boondoggle, eh Robert?

Thanks for posting that Eric.

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