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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?

gisterme - 09:05pm May 7, 2001 EST (#3487 of 3495)

rshowalter wrote: "...Look, if the past were clear, and the lies stripped away, some healing might be done, and all might be forgiven ---- maybe..."

What is not clear about the past that we haven't already beat to death? You think Stalin should have had a free hand to occupy eastern Europe and I don't. We've discussed both sides of those events. So far the "lies" you are talking about have been wartime deception of the type used by both sides in the cold war.

Do you refer to the same thing again? What might be forgiven by who? Do the NATO nations need someone's forgiveness for doing what it took to liberate Eastern Europe from annexation into the Soviet Empire?

gisterme - 09:11pm May 7, 2001 EST (#3488 of 3495)

Haven't had time to read all the almarst posts yet, Robert but I probably will. I like the guy. I see a few things in what I've read so far that I want to respond to. There are a couple of things he wrote that made me think he's not in Russia but that doesn't matter much. He's got an informed point of view and an apparent Russian background. Did he bug out permanently?

rshowalter - 09:15pm May 7, 2001 EST (#3489 of 3495)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

He's paying attention, I believe.

almarst-2001 - 09:37pm May 7, 2001 EST (#3490 of 3495)

Just came back from Moscow. For the first time in almost 30 years. Great many very interesting things. Particularely the city itself - the most beautiful, diverse and culturally rich one on this planet, at least in my view. Too much of an information to post at once. will try to answer the specific question, if asked.

Found an interesting article in the Guardian: "The McVeigh letters: Why I bombed Oklahoma". Among other far from crasy or evil ideas, here the one worth particular attention:

Bombing the Murrah federal building was morally and strategically equivalent to the US hitting a government building in Serbia, Iraq, or other nations."

... And another in Washington Post: "Villagers Dispute Kerrey's Account" - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52085-2001May6.html

"Vietnamese Witnesses Say U.S. Squad Initiated Killing in '69 Raid "

It corresponds to my view, stated in more then one occusion on various NYT forums before, that this and other manifistations of ever increasing violence within an American society is in large part a reflection of a posture and actions of this society internationally. The senseless crime is a crime, wether commited against its own or the foreign nations. Which one is a cause and which is a result is not yet clear to me.

What is clear, the deception and denial on parts of US goverment and military is still continues unabated.

The unpunished and even glorified crimes can only guarantee the bigger ones in a future.

almarst-2001 - 09:54pm May 7, 2001 EST (#3491 of 3495)

gisterme, do you justify the "liberation" by death?

And we are deciding the fate of someone else - not your own liberty which you personally may value above your own life or the lives of your loved ones. Do you, by the way?

I think, the only time in a past such a cold-blooded murder of innocent people for their "salvation" was promoted by inquisition.

almarst-2001 - 10:47pm May 7, 2001 EST (#3492 of 3495)

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY of the REPORT of the COMMISSION TO ASSESS THE BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT TO THE UNITED STATES - http://www.fas.org/irp/threat/bm-threat.htm

July 15, 1998

Pursuant to Public Law 201 104th Congress

Members of The Commission To Assess the Ballistic Missile Threat to the United States were nominated by the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate and the Minority Leaders of the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives

The Honorable Donald H. Rumsfeld, Chairman Dr. Barry M. Blechman General Lee Butler, USAF (Ret.) Dr. Richard L. Garwin Dr. William R. Graham Dr. William Schneider, Jr. General Larry D. Welch, USAF (Ret.) Dr. Paul D. Wolfowitz The Honorable R. James Woolsey and appointed by the Director of Central Intelligence

"1. Geopolitical Change and Role for Ballistic Missiles"

"A number of countries with regional ambitions do not welcome the U.S. role as a stabilizing power in their regions and have not accepted it passively. Because of their ambitions, they want to place restraints on the U.S. capability to project power or influence into their regions. They see the acquisition of missile and WMD technology as a way of doing so.

For those seeking to thwart the projection of U.S. power, the capability to combine ballistic missiles with weapons of mass destruction provides a strategic counter to U.S. conventional and information-based military superiority.

Robert, please note:

"The objective is to make U.S. forces lighter but more lethal, so that fewer personnel with less equipment can strike over longer distances and with a far more powerful effect. This gives prospective adversaries greater incentives to find new ways of offsetting the new RMA-based capabilities of the U.S. and in particular to come up with new "asymmetric" strategies-that is, strategies that can cripple U.S. ability to use its forces without the adversary having to confront those forces directly."

In my firm view, the MD is mainly not the answer to the suicidal attack of US by a fiew poorly tested antiquated missiles. It rather is a mean to anable the US overhelming conventional power to be used without any fear of even a suicidal retaliation.

The main goal is the elimination of the concept of AMD as an effective detterent against possible US aggression - the very real one, based on a recent examples of Iraq and Yugoslavia.

applez101 - 12:03am May 8, 2001 EST (#3493 of 3495)

Alarmst - on Moscow, your view, fair enough; but check out Kuala Lampur next time you're by there.

I'm afraid New York still stands out on all those fronts too. :)

As for the East, I'm afraid Moscow can't hold a candle to either St. Petersburg or Prague on the culture front. But then, hey, it's just my opinion. ;)

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