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?

yishun_l - 11:12pm Apr 29, 2001 EST (#2745 of 2757)

It's US's phylosophy that when we don't agree with you, I will bomb you whatever it takes,even if it might be civilian lives in your nations. It is needed to maintain US's super power status, but nobody else is allowed to become a super power. That is also some Americans' belife. Unfortunately it is wrong. It's wrong because a lot of time, what you belive may not be right. The rest of the world may not agree with you in many issues. Today, US is able to do almost anything it wants in the world. But who knows how long it can maintain its super power status. 50 years? 100 years? 500 years? Forever? I don't think it can forever. If one day another nation builds enough military strength and also unfortunately thinks it is the only "Mr. right". US will eat the consequence then. In conlusion, what one think is right may not be right for the rest of the world. Stop arms poliferation beginning with yourself. Get out of other people's territories. If you really want to help the world, provide food and friendship but not weapons. Make no more enamies.

rshowalter - 11:31pm Apr 29, 2001 EST (#2746 of 2757)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

We are technically close to real world peace -- and unprecedented world prosperity.

And the technical possibilities are in place for a better world than has ever been.

There is, right now, the possibility that many of the things we call "the promise of America" can actually come to pass.

It would take hard work. But work people would be able to do.

There's only one "show stopper."

The US, perhaps with some help from other nations, has to admit to some lies, and some missteps done by a very small, extraconstitutional group.

seamus2001a - 12:09am Apr 30, 2001 EST (#2747 of 2757)

Re: NMD as a sophisticated form of 'corporate welfare: "But consider the definition of a racketeer as someone who creates a threat and then charges for its reduction. Governments provision of this protection, by this standard, often qualifies as racketeering. To the extent that the threats against which a government protects its citizens are imaginary or are consequences of its own activities, the government has organized a protection racket. Since governments themselves commonly simulate, stimulate, or even fabricate threats of external war and since the repressive and extractive activities of governements often constitute the largest current threats to the livelihoods of their own citizens, many governments operate in essentially the same ways as racketeers."

[C. Tilly "War Making and State Making as Organized Crime"--from Bringing the State Back In edited by Peter Evans Dietrich Rueschemeyer and Theda Skocpol, Cambridge University Press]

possumdag - 01:30am Apr 30, 2001 EST (#2748 of 2757)
Possumdag@excite.com

Called bwsh a puppy above because he's not yet a 'working dog', he's untrained in the position he holds, has little empathy with the world, and even though his family are rich (by fair means or foul) Bwsh has not had the initiative to explore the world. The 'rogue' stance is dispicable. Is that what having Billy Graham to tea on a monthly basis does for one?

Bwsh has an MBA .. he pushed southern graces .. he can work a room for names .. he knows about NETWORKING for business dealings. Even so, knowing all that, he's taken to acting like a barking puppy .... time to take dust down the Eagle and let it fly?

-----

The racketeers analogy sounds right on - i see NY had a sting and pulled in 50 gangsters ... whose job is it to sting Washington?

possumdag - 01:36am Apr 30, 2001 EST (#2749 of 2757)
Possumdag@excite.com

No one near power in Britain supports Star Wars - apart from William Hague and Iain Duncan Smith, who are little more than displaced American nationalists

possumdag - 01:45am Apr 30, 2001 EST (#2750 of 2757)
Possumdag@excite.com

""It is reassuring to think that with so much being imported from the US to the UK there is some traffic in the other direction - even if it comes in the form of rolling blackouts ... blame Maggie Thatcher! ?

If a simple thing like a power supply is too complex to organise -- how would starWars stand up?

possumdag - 01:49am Apr 30, 2001 EST (#2751 of 2757)
Possumdag@excite.com

The British Flying Saucer Bureau has closed down.

possumdag - 01:55am Apr 30, 2001 EST (#2752 of 2757)
Possumdag@excite.com

LondonChickenLicken Bwsh-Lacky Blair is no eagle!

possumdag - 02:06am Apr 30, 2001 EST (#2753 of 2757)
Possumdag@excite.com

The Human Rights Act reflects human needs ... has it been explored in relation to the need not to be annihilated?

(4 following messages)

New York Times on the Web Forums Science Missile Defense