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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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almarst2002 - 07:59am Dec 16, 2002 EST (# 6726 of 6732)

http://www.latimes.com/la-fg-uniraq15dec15,0,550256.story - "When the 10 nonnuclear members of the Security Council receive their censored copy of Iraq's weapons declaration Monday, the reports will no longer contain Iraq's recipes for weapons of mass destruction. But another potentially volatile ingredient will be excised as well: the names of foreign companies that, knowingly or not, have supplied Iraq with weapons-making materials.

And why do you think is that?

rshow55 - 08:50am Dec 16, 2002 EST (# 6727 of 6732)
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.

There's been a lot of posting since MD6648 rshow55 12/15/02 9:32am , which includes a sermon, When the foundations are shaking http://www.wisc.edu/rshowalt/sermon.html - - but I think we might be safer if some people who had influence on action would consider the points made there again.

When foundations are shaking, and some superstructure is breaking apart from the strain -it is time for care .

Maybe I made a big mistake here, where I predicted that 2002 would go down in history as a triumph of diplomacy. 5441-2 rshow55 11/1/02 12:23pm . . . even now, I'm not sure. Maybe things could go well. People are paying attention.

If we take our time, and maintain care and honesty - a lot might go well. We have time - and we ought to know enough to know that, on key things, we are not yet ready to act.

Requirements for stability set out in 6649 rshow55 12/15/02 10:17am and elsewhere are basic, and we have time to satisfy these requirements - if we take that time.

almarst2002 - 08:54am Dec 16, 2002 EST (# 6728 of 6732)

Robert,

Do you already have a list of "good & just" American wars?

almarst2002 - 08:57am Dec 16, 2002 EST (# 6729 of 6732)

Is someone going to chalange my position that US compain against Serbia was a pure case of terrorism? As is continuing suctions regime against many countries which effectively target the population as a whole?

fredmoore - 09:02am Dec 16, 2002 EST (# 6730 of 6732)

commondata 12/16/02 7:41am

'We won't presume to tell lions not to eat zebras. We can tell particular national governments that bombing their way around the Middle East may not, in the long term, be conducive to the values they claim to hold dear. We can try to tell them that their double-standards, arms export policies and disrespect for international organisations, consensus, and agreements are unhelpful. We may occasionally mention that the play-dough of international law doesn't have to be molded into the phallus of an ICBM'

We told Adolph and Joseph. Fat lot of good that did. Human beings have layers of consciousness ... strip away the layers and you will soon find the beast.. Overpopulation and shortages or even mooted shortages of critical resources lead to chaos. Chaos that now only haunts our primitive psyches but like the beast from the 'ID' in 'Forbidden Planet', when unleashed, strips away all our layers. Thus exposed, only the strong will survive that beast. Like Dr Morbius in 'Forbidden Planet' you are too close to the problem.to see it clearly. Human populations are collections or ordered states in a thermodynamic system and when those ordered states are reduced through resource shortages, you will get chaotic disturbances irregardless of any higher thinking. There is only one civilised means of avoiding that chaos .... decreasing the ENTROPY ( increasing the ordered states). Unfortunately for us that requires prior planning, and that in turn requires modern leaders to understand ' thermodynamics' as related to human civilisations.

lunarchick - 09:09am Dec 16, 2002 EST (# 6731 of 6732)

'Richard Armitage, nice to see you in Australia again.' Transcript http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/s747094.htm

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