New York Times on the Web Forums Science

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.

rshow55 - 04:28pm Oct 22, 2002 EST (# 5118 of 5174)
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.

Missile Defense #1720 rshow55 4/23/02 8:13pm

lchic 4/23/02 4:44pm lchic 4/23/02 4:44pm

On Kissinger: Thomas L Friedman's review of Kissenger's Does America Need a Foreign Policy http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/k/kissinger-01policy.html ...is titled How to Run the World in Seven Chapters http://www.nytimes.com/books/01/06/17/reviews/010617.17friedmt.html

Friedman's review includes this:

" What was said of " The Prince ,'' as Harvey C. Mansfield Jr. of Harvard University explains in his translation, will no doubt be said by critics of Kissinger, Mansfield wrote: ''Soon after being published in 1532,'' Machiavelli's book ''was denounced as a collection of sinister maxims and as a recommendation of tyranny, giving rise to the hateful term 'Machiavellian.' '' Kissinger's book is not a recommendation for tyranny in any way, but it is very ''Kissingerian'' -- focused more around power balances, stability and national interests than American values. I have no doubt that Kissinger is as cynical, mean and nasty a bureaucratic infighter and player of the game of nations as his most venomous critics have charged. At times, he can make Machiavelli sound like one of the Sisters of Mercy. But having said that, one can still value the clarity of his thinking, which is fully on display here.

Clear thinking and all - - we have a right to ask for better performance now - and we need to acknowledge our own faults - - some of the things that the US has done are as terrible as anything that Saddam has done.

Md 63-67 rshow55 3/2/02 7:21am

MD64 lchic 3/2/02 7:28am

Md 67-69 rshow55 3/2/02 8:29am includes this:

The following was, for a time, featured on the wonderful and distinguished Encyclopedia Britannica web site. It has been removed, and links to it are not available. I'm including it here, because it gathers together wonderful references (some removed, but many remaining) that I believe are important to see, when one asks about what Friedman meant when he said that he had

" no doubt that Kissinger is as cynical, mean and nasty a bureaucratic infighter and player of the game of nations as his most venomous critics have charged. At times, he can make Machiavelli sound like one of the Sisters of Mercy. . . ."

Henry Kissinger on Trial: A Guide to the Controversy Surrounding the Diplomat February 2001

rshow55 - 05:27pm Oct 22, 2002 EST (# 5119 of 5174)
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.

We tolerate Kissinger in our midst - and sometimes listen to him.

The dislocations in the United States might be inconvenient, and not worth the cost - if we did not do so.

Are the principles so very different in our dealing with Saddam ?

I believe that Bill Casey thought of himself as a war criminal among many other things - - and felt that he was, in the situation of the Cold War, doing the best he could.

But I believe that in the current situation - he'd expect improved standards of performance. Casey was, in addition, a very "idealistic" head of the S.E.C. - and sentimental in many ways.

If Saddam is dangerous now and in the future - by reasonable standards - then that is a problem, and a problem as big as it happens to be. Justice is something to be weighed, as well. But if the US cannot convince the rest of the world, in this matter - then a lot is at stake - and we need to ask how many lives - American and others - we're prepared to spend for "justice" - - and how well that "justice" fits the circumstances of the case.

A symbol and synonym for justice involves balance - - - we have to worry about balance in this case.

International law, and patterns of international order, are being renegotiated . Either that, or they are being undermined.

The whole world has worry which is happening.

(55 following messages)

New York Times on the Web Forums Science Missile Defense