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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?

Read Debates, a new Web-only feature culled from Readers' Opinions, published every Thursday.

rshow55 - 03:31pm Jan 17, 2002 EST (#10846 of 10856)

guy_catelli 1/17/02 3:26pm . . . I'd support any missile defense system that can actually be built . . . and that makes something remotely resembling reasonable sense, in terms of alternatives.

And I'd be proud to help in the design. (Warning - to build a good MD system involves some technical accomplishments that might tend to obsolete some current hardware in our arsenel.)

rshow55 - 03:32pm Jan 17, 2002 EST (#10847 of 10856)

In good design, one of the first things you do (and Kelly Johnson was clear about this) is get clear about what CANNOT be done.

Once that's clear, the choices remaining are fewer, and more manageable.

guy_catelli - 04:44pm Jan 17, 2002 EST (#10848 of 10856)
the trick of Mensa

"lchic - 01:54pm Jan 17, 2002 EST (#10842 of 10848)

Meaning? ..."

so, *you're* "lunarchick"!

rshow55 - 05:11pm Jan 17, 2002 EST (#10849 of 10856)

Steve Kline told me that when he was a grad student at M.I.T., the top Dean made a point of gathering students together, and telling them a story.

The story was Jules Verne's TWENTY THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA .

I'm sure DOD types really know the story. But I like it, and think it fits here.

Mistakes happen. It is good to avoid the ones that can be predicted by analytical means. At best, there will still be plenty of others.

MD7177 rshowalter 7/18/01 9:32pm

gisterme - 08:25pm Jan 17, 2002 EST (#10850 of 10856)

rshow55 1/17/02 8:02am

"...It seems to me that the responses from gisterme and catelli , especially since rshow55 1/16/02 7:31am , indicate that I'm on to some things that are very important, that they can only try to deflect -- and cannot deal with honestly..."

Establishment of a viable missile defense system is a very important thing, Robert. You're the one that's saying it's impossible. What's the score now...two or three hits out of four tries in the current MD test program? So even at this "impossible, can't be done" stage (according to you), at least two targets out of four would have been spared. If the two targets spared were London and Paris, how many lives would have been saved without any future "triumphs" or "miricles"?

On the other hand if mankind had been successful on it's third attempt at flight, how many thousands of years of flight experience would we have now? If it were up to you, I'm sure we wouldn't be flying at all since we would have given up after being successful in only half of the first four attempts.

Your grandiose statements of "impossibility" are nonsense, Robert.

rshow55 1/17/02 8:07am

"...Could it be that some "establishment" people looked at problems, decided they were too serious to face, and went on a defamation offensive?..."

That question and your surmize addressed above only show that seemed to have slipped into a delusional state. You're the one that's deflecting things here, Robert. Speaking for myself, I have no desire to defame you, just to point out to those who don't have time to search your huge chill-boxes full of deli material that most of what is stored there is nothing but baloney and boring gray oatmeal.

However, could your deflective reaction to guy's psycoanalysis, one obviously based on your published words, mean that he's really onto something important? Maybe even the truth? Hmmm.

gisterme - 08:42pm Jan 17, 2002 EST (#10851 of 10856)

If Captain Nemo had never been born, would Jules Verne be just as famous? Gotta wonder.

"Captain Nemo was never born!", you say?

Well that's true. So what's the relevance of "20,000 Leagues Beneath the Sea" to MD? That story is a figment of a brilliant imagination. MD is being developed for real to prepare for a real threat. Are you having trouble with your grasp of reality, Robert? Having trouble telling the difference between imagination and reality? Feeling a bit OBE? Just relax and in your mind's eye conjure up an image of what beautiful cities the real London and Paris are. Next, consider what they'd be like after being nuked. Which image do you prefer? The real or the imaginary? If you prefer the real, then why do you try to invoke the imaginary as a basis for your arguements?

The answer to that is why I'll continue to assert that all your Casablanca and 20,000 Leagues kind of analogies are perfect examples of your balony. Not that I really have anything against baloney... :-) Some of my best friends actually eat baloney...even as adults!

lchic - 09:54pm Jan 17, 2002 EST (#10852 of 10856)

Just relax and in your mind's eye conjure up an image of what beautiful cities the real London and Paris are.

Paris .. you're ... standing ... in it!

If two of the world's most romantic cities can't manage regular caretaking .. what a fix they'd be in to try to clean up after Nukes!

Interestingly ALL THREE PROBLEMS .. dogs, litter, nukes, have one thing in common -
The HUMAN MIND!!

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