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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 - 01:41am Mar 7, 2003 EST (# 9566 of 9569)

lchic - 05:17pm Mar 6, 2003 EST (# 9532 of ...) http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@28.faSOa6tc4eW.471833@.f28e622/11071

"...Doesn't GWB know the 17th is a sacred day for the Irish!"

Of course he does, lchic! Practically evey town in the country has a St. Patty's day celebration. Don't you have any Irish "down under"?

gisterme - 02:01am Mar 7, 2003 EST (# 9567 of 9569)

"...But I believe that the man [President Bush] is doing the best he can, from where he is - in terms of the organization he has - and with a great deal of concern for doing the right thing.

AS he understands it..."

Well, Robert, as President of the United States, what else would you expect Mr. Bush to do??? The right thing as Mr. Chirac understand it?

What more than our best can any of us do?

Thanks for giving some credit where credit is due.

gisterme - 02:11am Mar 7, 2003 EST (# 9568 of 9569)

lchic - 01:28am Mar 7, 2003 EST (# 9565 of ...) http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@28.faSOa6tc4eW.471833@.f28e622/11104

"...some people are fooled all of the time."

Yep...and yet some of them still went to Sibera along with the rest who weren't. Go figure.

Stalin was so paranoid that he decimated the Red Army's officer corps just before Hitler attacked! What a shining example of great foresight in leadership.

gisterme - 02:47am Mar 7, 2003 EST (# 9569 of 9569)

Robert -

Here's another dot to connect WRT French motiviation for some of their present morality...

I learned today that France, being one of Saddam's principal trading partners, stands to soon gain contracts to develop oil fields in southern Iraq where it is thought that about 25% of Iraq's oil reserves lie.

No doubt one reason the French don't want war is so they won't have to fairly compete with anybody but the Russians for that work. Looks to me like oil profits might be at the heart of some of their motivation. Never mind that some free-market competition would get the best possible deal for the Iraqi people.

Also, I understand, most of the cars sold in Iraq today are French...they seem to have sort of a captive market going there.

What price liberty indeed? Apparantly the French would rather risk WMD-armed terrorists and let the Iraqi people continue to suffer than risk exposing their cash-cow to an environment of fair market competition.

The light comes on.

The French government simply doesn't give a sh!t about anybody but themselves. They're probably hoping that their position in the world will be improved if terrible things happen in the US and UK...just as sort of a side benefit. After all, they'd reason, if they're giving Saddam things he needs to feed his megalomania, why should they be a primary terrorist target?

Makes me think of the story of the little boy who found a magnifying glass...and when looking through it at his willy, decided he was a big man. So he took his BB gun and went out hunting mountain lions...was never seen again.

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