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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.

gisterme - 03:43am Jan 9, 2003 EST (# 7496 of 7505)

lunarchick 1/9/03 12:22am

"... the EU's say the USA doesn't understand the concept or meaning of war in terms of capital cost,..."

No? Then whom do you suppose paid the lion's share of the capital cost to defeat Nazi Germany and of the Marshall plan to rebuild Europe? Have the "EU's" so quickly forgotten the "arsenal of democracy"? I doubt it.

"...social cost..."

No? Then whom do you suppose paid the lions share of the social cost of destroying the industrial heart of Nazi Germany, liberating France and Italy, and the Marshall plan to rebuild Europe?

"...they don't understand the value of a human life ..."

No? Then why did the USA devote so much capital and social cost to snuffing out just one life...Hitler's? His was probably the most expensive life ever lived in terms of capital and social cost!

"...makes the USA sound very immature..."

No, lunarchick, it doesn't. What you've said makes you not only sound very immature, but shockingly ignorant.

"... -- that's by comparison to those EU guys!..."

What you've just said makes the palaver of a finch sound intelligent by comparison...and a finch only has a little birdie brain.

The only "EU's" that would say what you claim would be the ones that have stuck their heads where the sun never shines. The rest of the Europeans may agree or disagree with what the US is trying to accomplish for the world today, but they are not ungrateful for what the US has done for them in the past.

lunarchick - 05:40am Jan 9, 2003 EST (# 7497 of 7505)

Euros said that Americans didn't have the experience of their cities being bombed and flattened WWII.

Gisterme - Name cities in the US, that were 'demolished' by bombs from the sky in the period 1939 sorry 1942-5.

""This film is a report to the American people on how their 80 (per capita) tax dollars were spent and what they accomplished. http://www.marshallfilms.org/filminfo.asp?id=YED-1

http://www.heretical.org/mkilliam/wwii.html

"" I can remember vividly one day I had come home from school (I was at the grammar school now as I was 13 years old) and my mother had come home from work so that we could have lunch together. Mum was putting the kettle on and I was helping with the lunch when there was the most horrendous explosion I have ever heard – the house shook. We ran to the front door (Mum still with the kettle in her hand) and all our neighbours were outside. The smoke and fire in the sky was terrible. The rocket had come down about a mile away from us and we learnt later that it had demolished virtually the whole street and lots of people were killed – like us they were home for lunch. This experience really frightened everyone http://www.macksites.com/light2.htm

lunarchick - 06:02am Jan 9, 2003 EST (# 7498 of 7505)

A US Senator it putting up a bill that says a representative cross section of Americans should be called up to go to Iraq.

The Good Senator says that AfAms compose the US military for the most part ... whereas in the general population they ae 25% (nearer 11% ?) ...

The Senator's right.

The military sucks in the AfAm population because it's a way of them putting themselves through 'college' and getting that degree!

The Senator says 'all' should have a cross-sectional opportunity to endure the 'war' experience ... of course he's right !

lunarchick - 06:06am Jan 9, 2003 EST (# 7499 of 7505)

Looking at South America - an area close to the US ... what a state it's in.

The new guy taking over Brazil has a situation where the population can not trust the police -- because they work hand-in-glove with criminals -- people don't feel safe.

So how did US policies over the past half century match-the-needs of the average South American ?

Had South America been drawn up to an equivalent of the US .. then ample trading partners would be cashed up and available.

lunarchick - 06:12am Jan 9, 2003 EST (# 7500 of 7505)

On Bush - rshow55 1/8/03 9:11am

lunarchick - 06:20am Jan 9, 2003 EST (# 7501 of 7505)

ME casualties http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2636835.stm

Saddam must go (bbc) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2632845.stm

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