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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?

(1796 previous messages)

rshowalter - 03:27pm Mar 30, 2001 EST (#1797 of 1817)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

http://www.oss.net/ OSS Net, "harnassing the distributed intelligence of the whole world since 1992" -- and made publicaly available in September '99, may be a valid, useful, step in the opening up of intelligence communities.

The web site may be invaluable to its customers.

One would have to use it for a while, to find out what it was really good for. I'll look at some of its open stuff.

What IS clear is this --- CIA is learning that, for many reasons, you can't effectively "hide" much by keeping it totally secret.

You can often hide it, in the ways that matter, by making it hard to find, or burying it in other material, or setting it out in terms that only one side can interpret, not the other.

Perhaps my biases are showing, but my first impression was that the information a nation state should need, in its own interests, would be overwhelmingly "totally open - nonrestricted information -- and not, necessarily, much of it on this site or any other like it.

lunarchick - 04:06pm Mar 30, 2001 EST (#1798 of 1817)
lunarchick@www.com

What the people are learning is that the 'expensive' intelligence collected by agencies isn't targeted to the useful side of world life. Much is just un_intelligible data at the bottom of the Data > information > knowledge > wisdom continuum. Getting from data to knowledge and on to wisdom is faster in the real world than in the imaginary secret world.

lunarchick - 04:11pm Mar 30, 2001 EST (#1799 of 1817)
lunarchick@www.com

Watching a person, now departed for a flight, organise their itinerary, make a list, pull it together, put items into travel packs, go for a plane .... that is quite complex. So moving from the regular world to compounded compexity will be a demanding ordeal ... to ensure that the world is 'safe' and livable. And again, that landmines can't be tackled effectively, begs the question, how would world powers deal with an MD emergency -- presumably not that well!

rshowalter - 04:46pm Mar 30, 2001 EST (#1800 of 1817)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

We'd die.

We have to work hard to handle to complexity of the world -- even if we don't hide things, and even if we don't lie.

We should SEND IN CLEAR and get rid of nuclear weapons which are indefensible obsolete menaces.

rshowalter - 06:33pm Mar 30, 2001 EST (#1801 of 1817)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

There's lot of hard work on this thread, and looking back, a lot of good argument and good writing. Here are some highlights, that I've enjoyed recently.

Jobs can be impossible: rshowalter 1/29/01 8:48pm

Project shoots down treaties, but not missiles: mhunter20 1/31/01 11:19am

People fix things: rshowalter 2/1/01 1:17pm

Ted Turner and Sam Nunn: rshowalter 2/1/01 6:44pm

Signatories of the Global Security Institute appeal as of October 2, 2000 seem well worth listing, because I find the list hopeful: rshowalt 10/4/00 5:08am

Verification, and the importance of first steps: mhunter20 2/5/01 9:51am to rshowalter 2/5/01 9:08pm

MD can work? Who says so: rshowalter 2/6/01 5:06am

Nuclear disarmament - consensus is key: rshowalter 2/8/01 5:29pm

An entirely predictable confrontation and impasse: rshowalter 2/8/01 8:31pm

Nukes aren't very useful: rshowalter 2/9/01 12:39pm
rshowalter 2/11/01 4:41am

Beautiful Bush posture, as far as it went: rshowalter 2/9/01 1:24pm

BEAUTY: rshowalter 2/9/01 1:53pm

On an influential Week In Review spread: rshowalter 2/11/01 12:03pm

How AFRAID we are of each other - and good references: rshowalter 2/12/01 12:58pm . . . to . . . rshowalter 2/13/01 4:43pm

SEND IN CLEAR: Dawn Riley and I did a demonstration: rshowalter 2/13/01 4:43pm

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