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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 - 10:25am Feb 28, 2003 EST (# 9355 of 9359)
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.

In 2000 and early 2001, I was concerned that he world might well blow up - for reasons I knew a good deal about. There's been some limited progress since 1999 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@28.dy0raqGK4Rg.474117@.f28e622/2484 and some progress continues. There's still plenty to fear, along with a great deal to hope for.

Now, I feel sure that the world won't blow up - and if things were reasonably done - things might go beautifully. I'm reasonably sure than, ten or twenty years from now - we'll have a much better organized, more peaceful world. People are slow to learn - but smart enough for that. At the same time, it seems to me that the decisions of the Bush administration are now backwards enough, dangerous enough - that there may be, in the next five years - 5-20 million people may die unnecessarily - including a significant number of Americans, because of stupid mistakes every bit as avoidable as some that NASA has made - and denied in every bit as garish a manner.

Secret, Scary Plans By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/28/opinion/28KRIS.html

The scariest work under way in the Pentagon these days is the planning for a possible military strike against nuclear sites in North Korea.

Survival fears behind N Korean test: Downer Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says North Korea's increasingly provocative actions are part of a plan to protect the nation's leadership. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2003/02/item20030225122835_1.htm

. . ..

Meanwhile, former Australian ambassador to South Korea, Richard Broinwoski, says North Korea's missile launch is an attempt to gain the attention of the US.

Mr Broinwoski says there is a strong possibility the North will launch another missile.

"The Americans should really talk directly with North Korea because the North Koreans are getting desperate by being isolated, by being characterised as a rogue state and actually being threatened very strongly by the United States," he said.

Desperate people fight. Why are we afraid to talk?

rshow55 - 10:27am Feb 28, 2003 EST (# 9356 of 9359)
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.

A Friend in the Neighborhood By DAVY ROTHBART http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/28/opinion/28ROTH.html

he suggested I talk to the woman upstairs. "It's so easy to condemn when we don't know," he said. If he had a dispute like that with his neighbor, he said, "I would hope I would be brave enough to visit."

In my neighborhood, I told Mr. Rogers, everyone seemed to fear each other. The people moving in feared the people already there, and vice versa, and everyone feared the teenagers who cruised up and down the boulevard. We listened to some of the tapes I'd brought. "The worst thing is, people seem afraid to talk to each other," I said. I wanted to know why.

Mr. Rogers sat quietly for 15 full seconds. "Perhaps we think that we won't find another human being inside that person. Perhaps we think that there are some people in this world who I can't ever communicate with, and so I'll just give up before I try. And how sad it is to think that we would give up on any other creature who's just like us." His eyes seemed to be watering.

Restricting conversation is deadly - and it is a pattern that the United States is far too committed to.

I posted a summary 19 days after 9/11 - a time when gisterme spent a good deal of time on this thead, and I'm reposting it, with working links, here - because I think it makes simple points - not so eloquently as Rogers could , but clearly - that could save a lot of agony if they were understood.

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New York Times on the Web Forums Science Missile Defense