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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.

lchic - 05:18pm Jan 26, 2003 EST (# 8131 of 8145)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

Australian 'take' on Iraqi situation January 27, 2003

Downer sees talk, not war, ahead

FAILURE by Iraq to co-operate with weapons inspectors would trigger debate on how the United Nations should deal with the issue rather than military action, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has said.

Over the weekend, Mr Downer met US Secretary of State Colin Powell at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, to discuss the deepening crisis with Iraq.

He will embark on a round of talks with his European Union, French and German counterparts over the coming week as the pressure builds on Iraq to disarm.

Chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix is due to report to the UN Security Council in New York within hours.

Mr Downer today played down the prospect that a report of inadequate co-operation from Iraq would trigger military action.

"It's more likely that there will be some debate about whether the Security Council should pass a new resolution and how the Security Council should handle this matter," he told Channel 9.

"Through that process we will learn a bit more about what members of the Security Council think about the report, but I think it's very hard to predict at this stage how that will play out," Mr Downer said.

Meanwhile the row still rages over Australia's decision to send troops to the Middle East ahead of any UN ruling.

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd today said Prime Minister John Howard had shown arrogance in the move.

"He hasn't asked his party, he hasn't asked the people, he hasn't asked the parliament, he's just gone ahead and done it," he told Channel 7's Sunrise program.

"The problem we've got with John Howard's decision to send off troops now is that he's jumped the gun."

But Liberal MP Ross Cameron said Australia was simply "using force as a lever" in the diplomatic process.

"Even someone like (UN secretary) Kofi Annan has said that without US marshalling of force the weapons inspectors wouldn't be in Iraq right now," he told the program.

"We would not even be in a position of having weapons inspectors there today with Hans Blix about to report unless these forces had been marshalled by nations like Australia, the US and Britain." http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,5895769%5E1702,00.html

lchic - 05:22pm Jan 26, 2003 EST (# 8132 of 8145)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

World 'STANDARDS' would be a good thing.

Regarding STONING - NIGERIA ... the case should be put over the legal frameworks of other countries ... along with the DNA tests of mother child and 'father' to determine if a Nigerian Male might swear on the KORAN .. in order to get-out of paternity duties

Her story goes like this. She was a divorced woman living in her father's house in Kurami, a village roughly 90 minutes from here, when someone reported to the authorities that she had borne a child out of wedlock. She confessed, but not much of a confession was needed. A newborn girl served as proof of her crime.

The man she identified as the father of her child denied the charge. He swore on the Holy Koran, and that was that — the court judged him innocent. To prove his guilt under Koranic law would require testimonies of four witnesses to the fornication itself. No one suggested DNA tests.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/26/international/26NIGE.html

lchic - 05:26pm Jan 26, 2003 EST (# 8133 of 8145)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

USA continues to fund 'The Butcher' to kill children

When he got to his feet after the blast three people near him were dead and 15 were injured.

Fourteen-year-old Samed Atta Al Sharif lay nearby with shrapnel in his belly and his intestines hanging outside his body.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,5894791%5E2703,00.html

limpseed - 05:47pm Jan 26, 2003 EST (# 8134 of 8145)
"I don't know what to say Mr. meatballs, thanks for the dog" - Myrna Loy

Okay, Jose, man this stuff just keeps getting better and better.

I believe I will be saving some of this because I've been laughing so hard that it just is unbelievable free entertainment.

Rshow - hats off to you buddy. Yes no doubt gisterme could be POTUS. whoa.

And wrcooper also has an rshow story. Interesting.

And lchic once again says "they're all the same guy".

Thanks guys I'm laughing so hard, that I just have to say, this is what life and the forums are all about. Carry on.

lchic - 05:51pm Jan 26, 2003 EST (# 8135 of 8145)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

unbelievable free entertainment

.... is what the Civillian population of Iraq aren't looking forward to ....

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