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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?

possumdag - 05:38pm Apr 26, 2001 EST (#2633 of 2644)
Possumdag@excite.com

Japan's relations with the rest of the world lay in the bosom of a woman ... shame the USA doesn't have a woman president ... on Taiwan and China it's a pity Bwsh hadn't had time within his one hundred days to visit 'political strategy school' and learn the ambiguity technique of vague-speak!

Thomas Friedman hits the Oz press today - recounting Nuke-drills of the past with cp to the red-code drills of today's US-High Schools ... too many small arms guns in the American Community add up to death. Perhaps this desensities the American with regards to the seriousness of Missiles .. which may be seen as more of the same but larger - rather than the invisible threat to humanity. Note the Ukraine Power Station is still taking prisoners and executing them on the health front.

ON Taiwan ... the 'go-between' ... how much longer will China need the Taiwanese business family to establish industry backwards into China, when the Chinese are now developing English skills .. and will be capable of setting up deals themselves. And bringing in foreign capital partner alliances to establish industry.

The old links were that the Japanese manufactured in Taiwan, first grade goods, China picked up on second grade goods via Taiwan's backdoor, these were exported via Taiwanese channels.

As China gets improved world trade deals negotiated, the Mainland won't be so dependent on geo-proliferies bringing in manufacturing orders.

President Trueman worked out that even though the Korean war had killed (was it?) a million Koreans and two million mainland Chinese .. General MacArthur had to be 'stopped' (when there were still half a billion Chinese arms ready) .... whose around to 'stop' Bwsh?

possumdag - 05:50pm Apr 26, 2001 EST (#2634 of 2644)
Possumdag@excite.com

The new Japan foriegn minister said of the former prime minister - that he should wear adhesive tape over his mouth through the day, to be removed at night when he visited expensive restaurants! :)

possumdag - 05:58pm Apr 26, 2001 EST (#2635 of 2644)
Possumdag@excite.com

In China women are the boss - (top gender) - said a Chinese man who knew his place in the family, whereas he felt that, in Japan women were second class citizens - he'd lived there.

Getting women into the Cabinet, 5 Japanese women, will be a booster for Japanese women.

(In the past, women have seen themselves as 'secretary' fodder ... whereas the Japanese male had access to top level education.) Bringing talented women to the fore may boost their economy .. how did Japan get to be second world economy without utilising the wonders of their women?

possumdag - 06:08pm Apr 26, 2001 EST (#2636 of 2644)
Possumdag@excite.com

Noted that the fifth estate were in as negotiators - perhaps MiddleEast and Bwsh pulled them out, but, has now re-instated. Why would the C. IA be used as negotiators ... isn't that the realm of the foreign affairs (Sec of State) department ... don't they breed civillian diplomats in the USA?

rshowalter - 08:32pm Apr 26, 2001 EST (#2637 of 2644)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

The fifth estate, under some conditions, can do well at negotiation, but I hope that they are subordinated, and very thoroughly subordinated, to the State Department -- and NOT DOD.

rshowalter - 08:33pm Apr 26, 2001 EST (#2638 of 2644)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Sometimes THE NEW YORK TIMES nurtures the very best in print journalism, and the CBS Sixty Minutes offers some of the very best in television journalism. The coverage of the Bob Kerrey matter seems to me to be a fine, moving, troubling, important example.

I was impressed that there was something specially sensitive, and specially courageous, about Bob Kerrey, by political standards, when he wrote ARMED TO EXCESS ... NYT , OpEd, March 2 http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/02/opinion/02KERR.html reproduced also in 1831 rshowalter 3/31/01 1:14pm

Kerrey wasn't puritanical about killing in that piece -- but he did show a welcome sense of proportion, an understanding of mass murder for what it was, and a keen sense of how important it was, for real people, to see things if they were to make decisions. I thought the piece a contribution - and hope people will weigh it MORE heavily now, coming as it does from a man who actually knows enough about killing to judge what nuclear weapons are, and what our nuclear policy does.