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Missile Defense

Nazi engineer and Disney space advisor Wernher Von Braun helped give us rocket science. Today, the legacy of military aeronautics has many manifestations from SDI to advanced ballistic missiles. Now there is a controversial push for a new missile defense system. What will be the role of missile defense in the new geopolitical climate and in the new scientific era?

lunarchick - 06:12pm Oct 12, 2000 EDT (#410 of 414)
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"Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said he doubted terrorism was behind the blast." of USA destroyer in Persian Gulf. http://abc.net.au/news/2000/10/item20001013071355_1.htm The BBC don't have this on their board - yet!

lunarchick - 07:13pm Oct 12, 2000 EDT (#411 of 414)
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WBush's call for a CONSEQUENCE is in line with his TEXECUTION policy. I found this on a London thread :

hoib - 07:56pm Oct 12, 2000 BST (#53 of 65)

opaz Bush was BORN at the top of the pile. The hardest work he's ever done is avoid falling from grace. He's failed at everything he's undertaken...unless being governor of Texas could be seen as a plus?... but paid off co-victims with daddy's money. A thoroughly odius aristocratic cretin by NoAm standards.

Gore smarmy? He can be I suppose. I think Gore is uncomfortable with being a politician. I honestly believe he has altruistic instincts and wants to be a statesman. We're too cynical, I fear, to let him risk it. I think he keeps trying on different political costumes hoping one will fit. I rather like him when he isn't "on". http://talk.guardianunlimited.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee796ee/53

lunarchick - 11:11am Oct 13, 2000 EDT (#412 of 414)
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On the Middle East - the primary call is for 'revenge' from the Male players.

Americans may never have had access to a balanced information source.

Palestine is frustrated over the fact that they have had NO rights for such a long period, that America sits tightly with Israel, and that the UN 242 agreement has been negated by IsraelAmerica.

The use of blow by blow video news beatups to shape popular opininon negates the need for a long term overview of the whole situation.

An economic solution, not a military one, is what is required.

lunarchick - 11:39am Oct 13, 2000 EDT (#413 of 414)
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see also thread: http://talk.guardianunlimited.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee795fc/74

rshowalter - 12:54pm Oct 13, 2000 EDT (#414 of 414)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

That thread is the "What do you think" section of the Guardian/Observer's Middle East Special report , and I'm proud to contribute to that thread.

For someone who hopes that Nuclear Weapons can be taken down soon, the tragedy in the Middle East, sad as it is, can seem like a God-send. For all the fear and discomfort, only about a hundred people have died so far, after all (less than a hudred millionth of the world population, ALL of whom might die in a nuclear "accident")

But what a well watched lesson in human behavior under stress we are seeing !

All the calculations of "nuclear stability" are based on a "rational man" model that assumes that people, when threatened, do careful arithmetic, and refrain from doing insane things, like taking suicidal agressive action.

In the Middle East, stress from being excessively threatened reliably triggers suicidally agressive, totally irrational agressive action. That means that

1. Threatening people with nuclear weapons is a bad idea.

and

2. If hydrogen bombs went off, there'd be no stopping the carnage. "Rational man" behavior is the exact opposite of what ought to be expected.

Our nuclear policy is insane, it is far less stable than it used to be for technical reasons, and the chances of world destruction are quite real.

We should take the damn things down. All it would really take is the will to do so.

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