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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.

mazza9 - 12:01pm Nov 4, 2002 EST (# 5448 of 5452)
"Quae cum ita sunt" Caesar's Gallic Commentaries

"North Korea Says Nuclear Program Can Be Negotiated".

Robert, What is the term for a negotiation in which one side fails to "Keep its end of the Bargain?" (REMEMBER ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS!!!!!)

Only a fool would be heartened by such a circumstance. You like to subject us to your musings about Casablanca. What about that monumental saga, "The Godfather series?" Shall we make them an offer they can't refuse? Question. Who is the WE and who is the THEY? This is the real issue. Suppose North Korea says, "Tell you what. We take back South Korea, Japan, the Phiilipines and Vladivostok and we promise, (fingers crossed behind back), not to nuc Anchorage.

Very heartened Robert? Does the term nuclear blackmail ring a bell. lchic, these circumstances might be bothersome since the fallout from this situation, (both literally and figuratively!) would effect Australia.

Explain to us, Robert, exactly how this is a heartening state of affairs!

rshow55 - 12:59pm Nov 4, 2002 EST (# 5449 of 5452)
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.

Mazza, while I'm working more on your question - you might want to look at these:

2892 rshow55 7/6/02 10:42am ... 2893 rshow55 7/6/02 10:45am
2894 rshow55 7/6/02 11:08am ... 2895 rshow55 7/6/02 4:10pm

and especially this wonderful Week in Review piece:

. WORD FOR WORD / The Long Gray Line For Tomorrow's Army, Cadets Full of Questions by SERGE SCHMEMANN http://nytimes.com/2001/07/08/weekinreview/08SCHM.html?pagewanted=all

It seems to me that there needs to be a fight about matters of proportion -- and about things that have been done -- and that the ethical position in MacArthur's speech deserve careful considation --- because they express the role of a class that is important, but that needs to have a subordinated role. Here is MacArthur, speaking to cadets.

" Your mission remains fixed, determined, inviolable — it is to win our wars. All other public purposes will find others for their accomplishment. Yours is the profession of arms — the will to win, the sure knowledge that in war there is no substitute for victory, that the very obsession of your public service must be duty, honor, country."

MacArthur spoke those words after he'd been relieved of command by Truman -- for wanting to widen a war where he'd already ordered the fire bombing of cities, and the destruction of dikes, that killed more than 2 million Koreans in the North -- almost all of them civilians.

After an enormous amount of pain and craziness - the first thing is getting a lot of lines of communication set up - and getting a lot of word count - so that people have some hope of understanding and dealing with a very ugly situation.

Expecting "totally honorable and fair dealing" from the North Koreans (or the US) isn't to be expected. Tricks are to be expected. Distrust is to be expected - and there's plenty of good reason for it. That's good reason for setting up sufficient lines of communication so that checking is possible - - not a reason to cut contact off.

Cutting off communication until big concessions are made (after a great deal of what is arguably gross bad faith on the American side) is not the way to help matters. If it was, we'd have made a lot more progress with the N. Koreans over the last fifty years.

Things are dangerous - and that's a good reason not to handle the communications and necessary adjustments stupidly.

Sometimes, to be brutal is to be stupid.

Back in a while .

rshow55 - 02:25pm Nov 4, 2002 EST (# 5450 of 5452)
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'll try to have something more substantial to say by 4:00 EST - but for now, since it is the day before an election - I have a simple thought question:

Suppose voters were consulted - each given 15 minutes of clear, factual information about the situation in N. Korea - including some background - and asked what they would want to happen. After thinking about it for several minutes.

What would voters in various classifications (male, female, Democratic, Republican) want to have happen?

The same questions, under similar conditions, might be asked of voters in other countries.

What would they want to happen?

Those answers, even if only very rough guesses - might go some way towards getting values and especially signs ( + or - ) straight.

Back with more by 4:00 EST.

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