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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?

ledzeppelin - 09:01pm Nov 5, 2001 EST (#10280 of 10657)

gisterme - (#10269)

The likes of I, saying that I feel we are paying a price for the lack of our duty for care for Afghanistan post 1996 is one thing. But lets not give or credit OBL with enough heart or compassion or understanding to feel that or attribute him saying so, when he did not; nor even thought it. The west is letting OBL win the PR battle, so lets not make it easier for him.

You say “When I say they belong to the "same club" I mean that they share the common goal of destroying and/or subjugating western civilization. So long as they're helping move each other toward that goal, they'll remain bedfellows”. You are clearly not aware that OBL when Saddam went first into Kuwait went to King Fahad and said he and his followers would repel Saddam should he enter the neural zone between Kuwait and Saudi…. The King turned him down and went running to the west. This meant US soldiers posted on the land of the two holy places? That’s one of the reasons why OBL states the House of Saud and Saddam should fall for allowing that desecration.

The ex King of Afghanistan has for the last 16 years since the death of his cousin wanted to return to Afghanistan and reclaim a throne and rule, indeed he tried to do a deal with Gorbachov and also Yeltsin and that is well documented.

gisterme - (#10270 )

You state “He didn't have much trouble firing missiles into Israel during the Gulf War” these were aged scuds that were inaccurate and have a limited range indeed his scuds could not reach the Mediterranean.

You say “He still has many of those same missiles plus what ever new stuff he's been able to develope or acquire.” You can not develop technology or buy missiles with no cash moreover 99% percent of the scuds were destroyed, even those that were not, were then old and would now be lucky to get off the ground.

You say, “Culling Hitler didn't create a thousand more like him”. Firstly the German Government would not agree; given the sums they have to spend each year stifling fascism in Germany. Moreover we did not cull Hitler; he did [suicide] so, himself. One could not win hearts and minds by committing suicide you stand no chance of becoming a martyr, by being a coward and taking ones own life as Hitler did.

As you say, “We'll just have to agree to disagree about some things”.

gisterme - (#10273) You state "ostrich...of course, we humans shouldn't blame the poor ostriches for where they stick their heads because, after all, they only have little bird-brains"

Clearly I was disappointed with you if you have resorted to now evidently only capable of crass insults. Correspondingly there is little point trying to discuss anything if you wish to resort to being uncivilised, that behaviour I expect only from the likes of the Taliban.

almarst-2001 - 03:06pm Nov 6, 2001 EST (#10281 of 10657)

ledzeppelin,

Don't be disappointed with gisterme. He is pretty consistent in his view that West and paticularely the US represent the pinacle of civilization just short of the God's Heaven. Almost...

As the US bombers shake and mix the ground in Afganistan seeking to destroy whatever has left after the 20 years of war, readily as usual accepting the "colateral damage" and the perspective of coming winter starvation of thousends civilians, the real face of this "civilization" is pretty ugly and visible to all.

And given the promise that it is just the beginning of a crusade to bring the "infinite justice" to this world, the need for the MD is obvious.

Yes. In order to continue the "humanitarian" bombing World Wide crusade, the US needs all the MD it can afford and then some. It also needs to bring the special forces into the domestic "front", discard its constitution, close the Internet, take the control over the media, introduce the torcher of the suspects, arrests without warants, concentration camps for middle eastern looking residents and more as it finds "helpfull".

Forget the Butter, Give me the Gun! And I am sure the God will follow;)

mazza9 - 12:24am Nov 7, 2001 EST (#10282 of 10657)
Louis Mazza

Almarst-2001

Sure and the picture I saw of a "Muslim" man administering justice to a burqua clad women who is kneeling in anticipation of the Kalisnikov round to blow off her face is the height of human kindness!

If you're so smart why don't you go there and tell them how you support them and the blanekty blanks who think killing innocents is okay.

gisterme - 04:32am Nov 7, 2001 EST (#10283 of 10657)

ledzepplin wrote ( ledzeppelin 11/5/01 9:01pm ):

"...But lets not give or credit OBL with enough heart or compassion or understanding to feel that or attribute him saying so, when he did not; nor even thought it..."

I give that snake no credit for heart or campassion; but I do give him credit for showing understanding and intelligence towards advancing his agenda. Certainly overestimating an adversary's ability is safer than underestimating it. Wouldn't you agree? After all, the events of September 11 were the result of underestimation. By the way, how do you know what OBL has said or what he thinks? That's a pretty definate statement you make about that. Been in the cave? A psychic perhaps? Got a '900 number? What?

"...The west is letting OBL win the PR battle, so lets not make it easier for him..."

Hah! That's a gas! Firstly, I said I was mistaken and apologized about the mis-attribution. You're so gracious!

Secondly, I'm flattered that you think so highly of 'ol gisterme's ability to enable OBL's evil powers by a few words in this backwater forum. :-) Gotta smile at that. But we absolutely do agree in principal on that larger point you make.

WRT how the PR war is going I have to agree with you that the enemy has been doing okay so far; but this is just the beginning of that conflict. The radical Islamist PR campaign has been going on in some form for what? Thirty years? More or less. So I'm not worried much about what's happened over a month. I believe we're already seeing a transfomation in US media presentation. Our own journalists are not stupid. They're Americans too and they'll do the right thing for their country. I'm optimistic that history will remember American journalists as being a powerful force toward the ultimate defeat of all advocates of organized terrorism. It won't hurt a thing, I think, that those journalist's bosses are mostly feeling the same way. For those reasons the context of this situation is not at all like the that of the Viet Nam War.

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