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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 - 11:59am Oct 27, 2002 EST (# 5307 of 5308)
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.

Do American patterns now endanger the world?

Many of the patterns that the elite members of CSIS regard as most beautiful are exemplified, I believe, in the NUNN-WOLFOWITZ TASK FORCE REPORT: INDUSTRY "BEST PRACTICES" REGARDING EXPORT COMPLIANCE PROGRAMS http://164.109.59.52/library/pdf/nunnwolfowitz.pdf . . . but are these the patterns we need now, or the patterns we need to get away from?

Do we need to shut people out - or find ways to communicate, interact, and work with them?

My own view is that some basic admissions are going to have to be made by people who have worked, their whole lives long, to harden their hearts, and been very successful in that, and in other things.

During the Korean war, the UN, totally led by the United States - knowingly killed more than 2 million N. Korean civilians (in a country committed to ancestor worship) with dam bombing and fire bombings. That story has been well told, by Richard Rhodes and many others - but how many Americans know that? In our interactions with the North Koreans, the blemishes and unfortunate circumstances are not all on one side - and yet we negotiate and talk as if they are. rshow55 10/24/02 9:03pm

Are we too selective in what we turn away from - too selective in our empathy, and our moral concerns? One doesn't have to discount the importance of what the Nazis did to worry about other holocausts. Turning Away for the Holocaust by Max Frankel http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/14/specials/onefifty/20FRAN.html .

Again, my own view is that some basic admissions are going to have to be made by people who have worked, their whole lives long, to harden their hearts. Some of them Americans . Or, it the admissions aren't made, understood - so that the world can "make allowances" for the "honor" and infallible stances of these people - including some of high rank, wealth and influence in the United States.

Dawn Riley and I have worked hard to try to find and focus insights that will make levels of peace and collaboration that have been impossible before possible. I believe that one of our basic insights, set out in the beginning of Mankind's Inhumanity to Man and Woman - As natural as human goodness? fits here. http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee7b085/0

There's been an enormous amount of discussion on the technical issues of the "missile defense" fraud-boondoggle - which stands only because, in the United States, nothing can be checked to closure according to current usages. Those usages need to be changed - and I'm glad that gisterme's postings gisterme 10/27/02 12:54am connect to the possibility of changing them.

If leaders of nation states actually asked for change, we some changes for the better might be possible inexpensively, reasonably gradually, clearly, and gracefully. Stably.

rshow55 - 01:11pm Oct 27, 2002 EST (# 5308 of 5308)
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.

In a world with terrible weapons, terrible hatreds, and ugly wrenching histories, President Vladimir Putin made a terrible choice that may have been, in the circumstances - the very best anybody could possibly have done.

With equipment as it was, wisdom as it was, and luck as it was, tragedies occurred.

Health Official Says Gas Killed 115 Hostages in Moscow By REUTERS http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-russia-siege.html Filed at 12:02 p.m. ET

``They carried out the operation to the end, but they haven't worked out what to do for the relatives. Many cannot find their family members,'' said Anatoly Belayusov, whose 28-year-old daughter Lyubov was missing after the siege.

"FORGIVENESS

"President Vladimir Putin asked for forgiveness from the relatives of the dead.

"He declared Monday a national day of mourning as dozens of sympathizers left flowers and cards on a low wall near the theater.

Terrible things have happened, and more will. But if more world leaders would rise to the example Putin gave today, taking responsibilty in practical and fully human terms - - the world would be a better place. Many more problems could be solved, if more were squarely faced.

http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee7b085/405 http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee7b085/406

It has always been difficult to break cycles of violence. But perhaps we're slowly getting better at it, and the future can be better than today.

As many, many Russians have felt for us in our losses, I feel, and I'm sure many other Americans feel for theirs.

And hope we have the wisdom, and do the work, that may keep other losses from happening.

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