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Missile Defense

Russian military leaders have expressed concern about US plans for a national missile defense system. Will defense technology be limited by possibilities for a strategic imbalance? Is this just SDI all over again?

rshowalter - 01:18pm Mar 16, 2001 EST (#1077 of 1080)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Let me grant everything you say, and everything I know enough to expect you to feel, about the references you cite in #1070 almarst-2001 3/16/01 11:34am ; #1071 almarst-2001 3/16/01 11:45am ; and #1072 almarst-2001 3/16/01 12:02pm

They are excellent posts. I have read them, and your comments about them.

rshowalter - 01:23pm Mar 16, 2001 EST (#1078 of 1080)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

I hope that it is common ground that we can misunderstand each other in many ways, dislike each other for many reasons, and have much about the past between us that displeases us, and still live in peace.

Real peace - much farther from the brink of war, and a situation much more comfortable and much less expensive, than what we have now.

Understanding and reconciliation on many matters might help. But we don't have to like each other, either now, or in the future, to live in peace.

I hope we can agree to that. If we can, we can avoid fictions that can tie us both up, and make our interactions less comfortable than they could be.

rshowalter - 01:26pm Mar 16, 2001 EST (#1079 of 1080)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

But it is important that we resolve misunderstandings that could lead to fighting, or that get in the way of complex cooperations that would be in our mutual interests.

We can, I believe, hope to do this.

That would make other reconciliations more likely, and we could be safer and richer, whether those reconciliations ever happened or not.

rshowalter - 01:32pm Mar 16, 2001 EST (#1080 of 1080)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

I personally would like a chance to apologize for the actions of my country toward Russia since WWII - but when I say that, I'm speaking for myself, not for others.

I was once at a lunch, in Madison, with some distinguished Russian educators. I proposed a toast, thanking the Russian people, whose sacrifices in the Great Patriotic War may well have given me, and others of my American generation, a chance to be born. That toast came from my heart. I personally think the conflict between our coutries has been a great human tragedy. But I can only speak for my own feelings here, not for my country.

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