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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.

rshow55 - 07:26am Mar 11, 2003 EST (# 9798 of 9807)
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.

U.S., Britain Delay Vote on Iraq at U.N. By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Iraq-Diplomacy.html Filed at 5:52 a.m. ET

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Facing almost certain defeat, the United States and Britain delayed a vote to give Saddam Hussein an ultimatum to disarm and signaled they might compromise to try to win support from Security Council members who oppose a rush to war.

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This is an important negotiation. You don't have to follow the Guardian line to see that we are, in fact, renegotiating a

New world order: Remaking the United Nations Tuesday March 11, 2003 http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,911662,00.html (Editorial)

People speak of unintelligent people as "bird brains" - and birds "aren't very smart." Or very consistent - from some perspectives. But very consistent - and successful, from others. For such "stupid" animals, they get a lot done. I've made a few points about "oscillatory solutions" - that rest on a willingness to acknowledge that ideas, stances - are models, or maps, or control patterns - not necessarily "unchangeable truths" - and that switching between "contradictory viewpoints" can work.

7749 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@28.hxgjaXRT5rD.1238951@.f28e622/9274

Among the birds, every form of oscillatory solution that exists is on display - and results are well documented. All such solutions require calibration and at any given time clarity - though answers may alternate in alternating sequences. Using these sequences, birds can adapt to anything that they "have to" and "possibly can" in an evolutionary sense.

Of course, birds aren't very smart. But though they don't do it consciously (birds are a lot like twitchy little machines) they do, operationally, have "sense enough" to "know" that some stances that are perfect for one purpose don't fit for another - where another stance can be perfect. In a sequence.

We're much smarter than the birds, of course. But maybe missing some things that the birds have well worked out.

Right now, however a "bird brain" might do it - we have to sort out better arrangements than we have.

My own opinion, just now, for what it is worth - is that the United States has to agree that, given disarmament by Iraq - regime change isn't necessary. If it does not - other nations have to react logically - not arbitrarily - and start thinking seriously about disengaging from a very large number of interconnections with the American government and businesses connected with the American government that have been based on trust. And sometimes acting to do it.

lchic - 08:15am Mar 11, 2003 EST (# 9799 of 9807)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

Krugman's op-ed suggests the USA will be in fiscal trouble soon ... Interest Rates will go sky-high ... wonder if they'll reach 17.76%?

lchic - 08:21am Mar 11, 2003 EST (# 9800 of 9807)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

Guardian Talk International

US firms set to cash in on reconstruction of Iraq

"The American government is on the verge of awarding construction contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars to rebuild Iraq once Saddam Hussein is deposed".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,911941,00.html

New world order

Remaking the United Nations http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,911662,00.html

http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?128@@.4a90e328

lchic - 08:50am Mar 11, 2003 EST (# 9801 of 9807)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

"" International law is more open to interpretation than its national counterparts. Nevertheless, military commanders will need to be assured that the intervention is legal. "Just carrying out orders" has not been an adequate excuse since the Nuremberg trials.

On this occasion, the British government will claim that it can legitimately use force under extant UN resolutions about Iraq, and will find legal opinion to back this. Certainly senior British military commanders will need explicit guidance on the legality of the orders they give. A clear audit trail of responsibility is a comfort in the new world of the international criminal court, whose judges are sworn in for the first time today. ""

Guardian - on the ordinary soldier

______________

Dropping 3000 bombs in 48 hours on Baghdad is going to kill a lot of people

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,910673,00.html

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