New York Times Readers Opinions
The New York Times

Home
Job Market
Real Estate
Automobiles
News
International
National
Washington
Business
Technology
Science
Health
Sports
New York Region
Education
Weather
Obituaries
NYT Front Page
Corrections
Opinion
Editorials/Op-Ed
Readers' Opinions


Features
Arts
Books
Movies
Travel
Dining & Wine
Home & Garden
Fashion & Style
Crossword/Games
Cartoons
Magazine
Week in Review
Multimedia
College
Learning Network
Services
Archive
Classifieds
Book a Trip
Personals
Theater Tickets
Premium Products
NYT Store
NYT Mobile
E-Cards & More
About NYTDigital
Jobs at NYTDigital
Online Media Kit
Our Advertisers
Member_Center
Your Profile
E-Mail Preferences
News Tracker
Premium Account
Site Help
Privacy Policy
Newspaper
Home Delivery
Customer Service
Electronic Edition
Media Kit
Community Affairs
Text Version
TipsGo to Advanced Search
Search Options divide
go to Member Center Log Out
  

 [F] New York Times on the Web Forums  / Science  /

    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.


Earliest Messages Previous Messages Recent Messages Outline (9335 previous messages)

rshow55 - 04:19pm Feb 27, 2003 EST (# 9336 of 9340) Delete Message
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.

Here are stories on missile defense today:

Australia Eyes Missile Shield Amid N.Korea Threat By REUTERS (Reuters) News http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-australia-usa-missiles.html

Pentagon Seeking to Deploy Missiles Before Full Testing By DAVID FIRESTONE (NYT) News http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/27/politics/27MISS.html

It is a long time since Skeptical Senators Question Rumsfeld on Missile Defense by JAMES DAO http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/22/politics/22MILI.html - and some of the same issues continue.

Issues of checking and testing have been much discussed. And the need, eventually - for checking with staffs , and umpires.

If nation states that have expressed concern about American priorities - notably Germany, France, and Russia - actually ask for answers - a great deal would sort out - in the interest of people of good faith everywhere. Very many such people are Americans. http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee7a163/408

Are there i americans who could actually check the things that had to be checked? By current usages - it would be hard - but US Senators and their staffs - when they care to - can find truth - and get it across. Though they can also obscure it. Senators of both parties are getting clearer than they may have been in the past on just how muddled bureacracies can be - the statements by Grassley, Specter, and Leahy on C-Span associated with Senate Criticizes FBI on Anti - Terror Law By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 6:22 p.m. ET http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Anti-Terror-Act.html were bracing.

this link http://www.mrshowalter.net/a_md7000s/7560 has beautiful links from lchic, and includes this:

There's a problem with long and complex. And another problem with short. . . . . The long and the short of it, I think, is that you need both long and short."

In the end - I'd like to help get across some simple messages:

1. Missile defense is not only a bad strategic idea -- it is also a huge technical fraud, with no technical viability whatsoever, and that can be shown in public.

2. The US military industrial complex is now, in decisive ways, fundamentally fraudulent and corrupt.

3. For a while, the rest of the world has to take responsibility for action without dependence on the cooperation of the United States, or deference to its good judgement, until some basic issues in the United States get righted.

"The problem with these messages is not that they are complicated, but that people are not yet ready to hear them, in ways that can let them "detonate" through the culture, as true ideas, at the right time, can do. But people are more ready than before (in July, 2001). The flow of the news, and editorial opinion, in this paper and many others, worldwide, illustrates that.

They are much more ready now.

Let me cite a poem, that I feel is fairly concise, on the issue of "detonation" -- Chain Breakers . . . . http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee79f4e/618

gisterme - 04:21pm Feb 27, 2003 EST (# 9337 of 9340)

lchic - 04:01pm Feb 27, 2003 EST (# 9328 of ...) http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@28.breoazby4Gc.341979@.f28e622/10862

"...The Good people don't like to be UNDER falling BOMBS..."

Quite true lchic. Neither did the good people of France; but I'll bet the good people of Iraq, as were the the good people of France, are willing to tolerate a few bombs to be liberated from a future of dynastic tyranny.

Let's hope together that bombs prove unnecessary for the liberation of the good people of Iraq.

More Messages Recent Messages (3 following messages)

 Read Subscriptions  Subscribe  Search  Post Message
 Your Preferences

 [F] New York Times on the Web Forums  / Science  / Missile Defense





Home | Back to Readers' Opinions Back to Top


Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company | Privacy Policy | Contact Us