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 - 09:05pm Oct 29, 2002 EST (# 5376 of 5380)
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.

The comfort level of responsible people in the security council may be a very good thing to strive for.

Good decisions, if they get made - will look like good decisions 10, 20 and 50 years from now - and they will be decisions that can be explained clearly to historians, and the people leaders are acting for.

As negotiations occur - the ideas expressed here deserve attention:

'Wilson's Ghost: Reducing the Risk of Conflict, Killing, and Catastrophe in the 21st Century' By ROBERT S. McNAMARA and JAMES G. BLIGHT http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/29/books/chapters/29-1stmcnam.html

We need to come to arrangements that make sense - and are stable. Because the cost of "miscalibration" and "overeaction" is human . . .

" We must try to identify with other human beings who have been victimized by war and violence—like the hundreds of children whose arms and legs were brutally chopped in half recently in Sierra Leone—in order to make human sense of the numbers, and in order to be moved by the numbers to take preventive action...

Weapons of mass destruction are worse than machetes - - and we need to find ways - that are workable, and stable - to get rid of them. They are revolting and dangerous - and the "logic" that maintains them only makes sense in a world that is unstable.

We need a world that is stable - - that can come to reasonable human solutions in humanly tolerable ways - without too much wrenching of guts.

It seems to me that, if some key decisions can be carefully made - that we're well on the way to getting a stabler world than the one of the past.

In the current situation it is possible that some key people in the Bush administration - and people who oppose them - can all be working in ways that facilitate real progress.

So long as people take care that what they do fits facts - - and human needs.

That's a good reason to take the trouble to check facts that life and death decisions are being based on.

lchic - 07:41am Oct 30, 2002 EST (# 5377 of 5380)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

'Wilson's Ghost: Reducing the Risk of Conflict, Killing, and Catastrophe in the 21st Century' By ROBERT S. McNAMARA and JAMES G. BLIGHT

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/29/books/chapters/29-1stmcnam.html

Numbers
Figures
Statistics

Ideology
MilitaryPower
Carnage
Wastage
Hell
Death

Imperialism
Lands
Minds
Limitations

Empathy
Love
Unity
People
Understanding

Progress
Growth
Interaction
Complexity
Process
Output
Returns

Peace
Prosperity
Growth
Building

Structure
Wealth
Culture
Tradition

lchic2002

lchic - 08:24am Oct 30, 2002 EST (# 5378 of 5380)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

Self-Actualization - Pursue Inner Talent - creativity fulfilment

Self-Esteem - Achievement Mastery Recognition Respect

Belonging - Love - Friends Family Spouse Love

Safety - Security - Stability Freedom from Fear

Physiological - Food Water Shelter Warmth

Maslow, A (1970) Motivation and personaIity

Physiological - Food Water Shelter Warmth

Safety - Security - Stability Freedom from Fear

Belonging - Love - Friends Family Spouse Love

Self-Esteem - Achievement Mastery Recognition Respect

Self-Actualization - Pursue Inner Talent - creativity fulfilment

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

lchic - 10:36am Oct 30, 2002 EST (# 5379 of 5380)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

People need stability.

People need an Economy.

People want work and means to fulfil family commitments and raise 'next' generation.

People don't relate to Missiles and annihilation.

People look for incremental improvements they can work towards that improve wealth and life chances.

(1 following message)

New York Times on the Web Forums Science Missile Defense