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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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rshow55 - 06:08pm Jan 27, 2003 EST (# 8190 of 8191)
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 are some basic problems here - that have to be adressed - war or no war. I referred to them yesterday in these postings:

Christianity and Islam are quite different... by rshow55 - Jan 25, 03 (#8025 of 8125)

Here is a list of Mohammed's wives and concubines... by rshow55 - Jan 25, 03 (#8026 of 8125)

In 7952 I wrote this - and gisterme has... by rshow55 - Jan 25, 03 (#8027 of 8125)

These links are well worth looking at - if we are... by rshow55 - Jan 25, 03 (#8028 of 8125)

I very much prefer Christianity to Islam,... by rshow55 - Jan 25, 03 (#8029 of 8125)

We ought to change some things, too... by rshow55 - Jan 25, 03 (#8030 of 8125)

We have some fundamental differences with the Islamic countries that need to be recognized, and dealt with - because unless they are - we have no chance of resolving the things that need to be resolved - with or without war.

I've referred to Rita Hayworth from time to time - because she's a superb star and dancer - and married a typically Western figure - Orson Wells - and a typically Islamic figure who exemplifies some of the deepest conflicts we have with the Islamic world - Aly Khan. Rita Hayworth Biography http://members.tripod.com/~claudia79/bio.html . . . http://members.tripod.com/~claudia79/middle.html

Here is Clive James on Ali Khan, from FAME in the 20th Century - Random House

"Aly Khan was like his father the Aga Khan all over again, but the old Aga had been famous only for racehorses and an annual salary of his own weight in diamonds. Aly was famous for marrying Rita Hayworth. He was famous for succeeding with a lot of other women who were married to other men. He travelled between love affairs in a succession of fast cars. "They call me a wop and a nigger," he said, "and I f____ their wives."

Many of these wives were married to senior military officers in the UK during WWII - and many of the stories aren't pretty. Anger about Aly Khan's conduct - and much similar conduct by other Islamic men - is well remembered by people who have had to deal with them.

Rita Hayworth married Aly Khan knowing about his conduct - and it would be amazing if she married him expecting to change it.

More recently, a surgeon from an Arab country messed up Lady Diana in every way that has to matter to the royal family - the story is that Diana was so out of control about him that she met him, with servants in attendance - wearing a fur coat and nothing else.

Were Aly Khan and this surgeon honorable men in Arab terms? The answer, unfortunately, is much too near to an affirmative for comfort. Most Iraqis, both male and female - would probably have approved of such conduct - cheered it on - and regarded as welcome proof of the superiority of their culture to that of the West. Part of the deal in Islam is subordination of females - but along with this subordination is an active interest - explicit in the religion and the culture - in sexual pleasure for females. We have some very great differences here - in areas very likely to lead to fights and ugliness - we've got plenty of ugliness and injury already -and we need to think carefully about what the people involved - Islamic and Western - actually can do - as they are - with the cultures and precedents that actually exist. We need to understand how profoundly different the Islamic and Christian attitudes toward honor - on some very key points - actually are. Something so simple as a war - especially a war fought on a naive basis -won't change them. It is not going to be an easy trick getting Iraq to change into something GWB will sympathize with.

We have to come to more workable agreements with the Islamic nations that we have. When sexual restrictions are a central part of their institutional rigidity - we need to know it - not repress our knowledge of it, and si

commondata - 06:22pm Jan 27, 2003 EST (# 8191 of 8191)

Bob,

I've enjoyed dipping into this thread over the last few months, and I've enjoyed much of the work that you've presented on your CD and now on your website; I'll be going back to it again. It's time for me to take my leave and hit the road. But Cooper's right - you and lchic are sometimes drawn into a complicated world of your own creation. Maybe a visit to Chicago wouldn't be such a bad idea ...

All the best.

Out.

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