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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 - 03:20pm May 4, 2001 EST (#3248 of 3258)
Possumdag@excite.com

LA OS .. Los Angeles Over Seas it ain't!

rshowalter - 03:27pm May 4, 2001 EST (#3249 of 3258)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Checking for feasibility:

3150: rshowalter 5/3/01 12:34pm
If the checking described there was actually done (if not in under US auspices, perhaps by a newspaper, or under UN or EU auspices) a massive case for the technical unworkability of NMD would be in place.

The checking is an easy thing to do, involves nothing classified (although exception fielding would require some accomodation) and would be solid enought that I don't think any licensed engineer, in a jurisdiction where his license could be attacked, would dare cast substantial doubt on it.

possumdag - 03:28pm May 4, 2001 EST (#3250 of 3258)
Possumdag@excite.com

I'm laughing .. i did look Laos up in the Atlas .. then didn't check mine against it .. too early in the morning .. didn't someone on this thread comment that checking is important .. i think the poster meant double-checking .. I could have taken my B52 to the wrong place and dropped bombs on the wrong people !

rshowalter - 03:31pm May 4, 2001 EST (#3251 of 3258)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

If one assume that gisterme has some rank in the Bush administation (especially if this could be proved) the exchange would make especially interesting reading.

For myself, I think NMD may have been a great idea -- not as a solution to the problem of nuclear terror -- but as a way of getting people stirred up enough so that, at long last, people figured out the simple things needed to prevent nuclear destruction of the world.

And even figure out the harder, but still feasible, things outlawing nukes would take, for real human animals as they are.

possumdag - 03:37pm May 4, 2001 EST (#3252 of 3258)
Possumdag@excite.com

Funds for Americans:

However, medical and prosthetic research funding was flatlined at $321 million, the same as the White House proposal. The American Legion had requested $375 million in funding for this account. Finally, the president requested $60 million for the Veterans State Extended Care Facilities Grants program, and the VA Appropriations Subcommittee concurred. The Legion had proposed $150 million for this grants program.

possumdag - 03:38pm May 4, 2001 EST (#3253 of 3258)
Possumdag@excite.com

POWER (Prosthetic and Orthotic Worldwide Education and Relief): A Strategic Support Allocation of £100,000 to enable the Lao Peoples Association to function as a self-help organisation and advocacy group for disabled people in Laos.

rshowalter - 03:39pm May 4, 2001 EST (#3254 of 3258)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Things to check:
3080: rshowalter 5/2/01 7:34pm
3081: rshowalter 5/2/01 7:35pm
3082: rshowalter 5/2/01 7:36pm
3084: gisterme 5/2/01 7:51pm
3086: rshowalter 5/2/01 8:04pm
3087: rshowalter 5/2/01 8:07pm
and gisterme's diplomatic but very clear dodging of the tests:
3093: gisterme 5/2/01 8:52pm

possumdag - 03:40pm May 4, 2001 EST (#3255 of 3258)
Possumdag@excite.com

Seems the people of LAOS have to scratch for charity ... along with scratching in the dirt for food .. odds on the prosthetics in the USA are a better 'fit' than those in the battle fields where these military 'intentional' accidents occur daily.

rshowalter - 03:41pm May 4, 2001 EST (#3256 of 3258)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

And there are many other things to check.

And for NMD to be reasonable, everything has to work together at least most of the time.

It would take a long list of impossibilities, laid end for end, each depending on all the others.

possumdag - 03:44pm May 4, 2001 EST (#3257 of 3258)
Possumdag@excite.com

If the USA can't manage conventional warfare -- then 'poor world' is they move into the 'fancy' stuff.

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