New York Times on the Web Forums Science

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?

lunarchick - 03:52pm Apr 5, 2001 EST (#2014 of 2020)
lunarchick@www.com

Inertia

''The time when I was working was a complete farce,'' he said, explaining that political bickering made it impossible to achieve much. He added that he hoped the little progress that had been made would prevent a ''return to the past''.

As his country under the communists turns towards Russia and further away from the EU, his optimism seems a little out of place.

The Moldovan response to all this is to roll out an old joke: "what happens when things hit rock bottom?" Answer: "Start digging".

The question is, where to?

lunarchick - 03:57pm Apr 5, 2001 EST (#2015 of 2020)
lunarchick@www.com

How are the former USSR countries faring ?

almarst-2001 - 04:51pm Apr 5, 2001 EST (#2016 of 2020)

I was born and lived in Chisinau before my study in Leningrad after the school.

It used to be a very advanced part of USSR with excelent schools (low and middle and high), pretty good University and Medical School. And not bad at all Academy of Science.

The main problem of the most ex-republics is that their economy was completely tied one to another, including energy and food. They can't just enter the EU market and mostly depended on energy from Russia and raw materials on one-another.

almarst-2001 - 04:57pm Apr 5, 2001 EST (#2017 of 2020)

You may find it interesting - starwolf0 "Bush's Foreign Policy" 4/5/01 4:49pm

almarst-2001 - 04:59pm Apr 5, 2001 EST (#2018 of 2020)

As I thought -

Schroeder Urges Russian Partnership - http://www.newsday.com/ap/text/international/ap92.htm

almarst-2001 - 05:03pm Apr 5, 2001 EST (#2019 of 2020)

Why NATO? - Powell presses Poland on purchase of US fighters as Bush announces trip http://asia.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/world/article.html?s=asia/headlines/010406/world/afp/Powell_presses_Poland_on_purchase_of_US_fighters_as_Bush_announces_trip.html

rshowalter - 09:00pm Apr 5, 2001 EST (#2020 of 2020)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Before I left five and a half hours ago, there was a thoughtful response from almarst-2001 4/5/01 2:44pm There have been interesting postings since !

Suppose, just imagining now, that rather than almarst_2001 , the answer had come from Vladimir Putin. Perhaps, after all, great minds think alike.

If Putin, and Scroeder, thought the idea of almarst-2001 4/5/01 2:44pm was worthwhile, -- especially if some other leaders felt so, as well ( including, perhaps, Ted Turner, who is visiting Putin for another reason, and who is spending money on disarmament and nuclear safety) then a journalistic staffing-out of issues of disarmament could be done -- and funded by private sources. I think that effort could be influential. Perhaps even decisive for peace. And, at the least, good journalism.

Word passed, informally but through credible channels, by leaders, could get this done. I'll be writing the Soviet embassy, on the off chance that they may take an interest, with a list of people who I think might be useful in aid of such an effort. I'll only know some of the Russians who might be influential. I'll also be trying to get to Ted Turner and Sam Nunn.

The work would be, at one level, "deniable" in the intelligence operator's sense -- but in another sense, the work output would be undeniable. Many facts and logical sequences could be put together - and it is likely that, quite often, these facts will be subject to only one interpretation.

For me it has been a long day. Sometimes, when very many good things happen, and new possibilities open up at once, one can need a little time. (Sometimes, especially, time to recalibrate one's hopes, fears, and assumptions.) I'll be thinking more, and hoping to be constructive, tomorrow.

I'm hopeful.

New York Times on the Web Forums Science Missile Defense