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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.

lchic - 11:23am Mar 14, 2003 EST (# 9932 of 9943)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

The US say they'll sidestep the UN

Turn to Bush41 mandate

Find a loophole

Clamber through

Can only happen to each person

ONCE!

Maimed?

The sentence is a lifetime!

lchic2003

rshow55 - 11:51am Mar 14, 2003 EST (# 9933 of 9943)
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.

About 250,000 people die a day - and there are many too many tragedies, after many lives that are far too poor - far too wrenching. We have to be afraid of consequences of things done - but worry about the messes that have been and are continuing, and looming, as well.

9927 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@28.7UUHaJ4I5vW.1946033@.f28e622/11469 refers to 9895 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@28.7UUHaJ4I5vW.1946033@.f28e622/11437 , which includes points that I'd continue to make, that I think have been reinforced by all the confusion, and by some good decisions that seem to be in process, as well.

By the real standards of power holders, at present and in the past - Bush and Blair are trying hard - and may be doing pretty well. I'm optimistic.

Putin is trying hard, too. Russia ought to be looking for opportunities here - to meet the needs it actually has - practical and at the level of feelings.

Test question:

If Saddam is dead - would leaders know what to do?

There are some very good answers - and if leaders don't know them - they should stop and think hard.

Nobody has to be in too much of a hurry. There's a lot of damping about - and many key things are pretty stable - in conditions where good convergence is possible. If people work well - maybe possible with a miraculous minimum of carnage.

Overall, things look good to me. I'd gotten my body in pretty good shape, after a long layoff -and have worried and worked so much, the last ten days - that I stopped exercising. Just now I feel much better - and so I'm taking a break to get sweaty.

Some leaders ought to sweat some, too. This is fearful time. Things could go very right. Or wrong.

mazza9 - 02:50pm Mar 14, 2003 EST (# 9934 of 9943)
"Quae cum ita sunt" Caesar's Gallic Commentaries

robkettenburg03:

I suppose that the implantable chip will enhance the US Missile Defense program?

gisterme - 05:03pm Mar 14, 2003 EST (# 9935 of 9943)

rshow55 - 10:45am Mar 14, 2003 EST (# 9933 of ...)

http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@28.7UUHaJ4I5vW.1946033@40679d@.f28e622/11475

"...Is the meeting adequately staffed?..."

You think an high-raniking enisted man, a graduate student or a beat reporter would be qualified to judge that???

If if that person's judgement were that the meeting were not adaquately staffed whom should they call... you?

Get your feet back on the ground, Robert.

If two presidents and a PM are the prime consultatnts, then I'd say the meeting is more than adaquately staffed.

How do you think a fly on the wall would improve the staffing?

bbbuck - 05:08pm Mar 14, 2003 EST (# 9936 of 9943)

You don't think robcatchaduh22-burg, might have one of those chips in his head as some kind of test white mouse, do you?

Just throwing it out there.

gisterme - 05:08pm Mar 14, 2003 EST (# 9937 of 9943)

Robert -

I doubt that Saddam is dead...but even if he were, then it would be his sons who are running the show. The bottom line is that Iraq has not accounted for it's WMD and remains a brutal dictatorship no matter who is in charge.

Whether Saddam is dead or alive, he or his proxies will not threaten the world nor will the people of Iraq suffer much longer.

(6 following messages)

New York Times on the Web Forums Science Missile Defense