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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 - 07:50pm Oct 15, 2000 EDT (#416 of 424)
Shall send between the Red Rose and the White A thousand souls to death and deadly night.

Israel's military spokesman said last night. Force, he said, "will be the only language they understand" http://www.independent.co.uk/news/World/Middle_East/2000-10/hatred131000.shtml

mrtoad11 - 06:35am Oct 16, 2000 EDT (#417 of 424)

Sounds a jerk!

rshowalt - 07:48am Oct 16, 2000 EDT (#418 of 424)

Saw "Rehearsing Doomsday" on CNN last night. Hope others did. It reinforced every concern I've expressed here.

Web sites, and other information, have been set out in rshowalter 10/12/00 12:15pm

A major point about power was forcefully made in the show. The nuclear warriors are so powerful, and so isolated from usual political controls that Congress can't even get to see the targets in Russia that we're shooting at.

The system is, if anything, more precarious than I'd understood. The world could quite easily end. Generals on that show said so.

I hope that show repeats pretty frequently. It is something that I feel everybody should see.

rshowalt - 07:53am Oct 16, 2000 EDT (#419 of 424)

The solution I set out in #'s 266-270 of this thread rshowalt 9/25/00 7:32am is entirely consistent with the information set out in "Rehearsing Armageddon."

The military could take those weapons down, given political direction to do so, if this was done in a pattern that assumed, and accomodated, distrust.

But that distrust would have to be accomodated. First strike concerns dominate the thoughts of both sides, as they reasonably should.

We can't assume trust, which we lack. We should accomodate the distrust we have, and get on with the vital business of taking nuclear weapons down.

It can happen as soon as Americans decide they want it to happen, but American will is required.

lunarchick - 08:47am Oct 16, 2000 EDT (#420 of 424)
Shall send between the Red Rose and the White A thousand souls to death and deadly night.

Show? Would the term documentary be more appropriate. That Americans arn't getting it right in the Middle East ... READ this: http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,382931,00.html President Bill Clinton is threatening to interfere once again in the search for a peace settlement in the Middle East. If possible he should be kept at arm's length by the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, whose quiet diplomacy has begun to make peace look like a possibility. If Mr Clinton now tries to elbow him aside and to reassert America's control of what should be an international operation, he is likely to fail as he has failed before. If that happens, it will be tragic for the people on both sides, Palestinians and Israelis, for whom a settlement would have brought relief from violence and misery and despair. (more) http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/comment/

lunarchick - 10:03am Oct 16, 2000 EDT (#421 of 424)
Shall send between the Red Rose and the White A thousand souls to death and deadly night.

A comment on the functioning of MI6 : "A secret service is a detachable hand. It crawls off and does work that it considers to be in the body's best interests, but the head usually remains unaware of exactly what the hand does." http://talk.guardianunlimited.co.uk/WebX?13@@.ee761e0/225

lunarchick - 05:44pm Oct 16, 2000 EDT (#422 of 424)
Shall send between the Red Rose and the White A thousand souls to death and deadly night.

cnn program is reported in today's Pakistan Daily (16Oct2000) Musharraf says Nuclear Arsenal secure, US not so sure: CBS's Report -

WASHINGTON, Oct 15: General Pervez Musharraf rejected suggestions that newly-created nuclear arsenal could fall into the hands of increasingly powerful Islamic radicals. "I don't think that is going to take place," Musharraf told CBS's "60 Minutes" television program.

"Never has a religious party won seats in our assemblies," he added. Never. Pakistan is a very moderate Islamic country." But US officials are increasingly concerned that the generals, who seized power in Pakistan one year ago, are beholden to Islamic radicals, and these fundamentalists could end up controlling nuclear weapons, the network said.

They believe many military officers in Musharraf's army are sympathetic to the "militants", and if the general tries to crack down against Islamic leaders, he may be overthrown, the CBS report said.

Former US Central Command Chief General Anthony Zinni told the network that a scenario under which Pakistani nuclear weapons could wind up in the hands of Islamic radicals was very possible. "My worry is that Musharraf may be the last hope," Zinni said. "We could have fundamentalists and another fundamentalist state that looks like Iran. That could be dangerous for obvious reasons. Or, we could have complete chaos and something that looks like Afghanistan."

According to John Pike, a nuclear proliferation expert with the Federation of American Scientists, Pakistan, which carried out its first nuclear tests in May 1998, now has between 25 to 35 nuclear warheads. "Certainly enough to fight a major nuclear war," Pike told CBS. Musharraf insisted these weapons were extremely secure. "This is my guarantee," he said. (AFP) http://www.dawn.com/2000/10/16/latest.htm

Revise up from 1 to 35 the number of missiles in Pakistan!

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