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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?

rshowalter - 08:06am Jun 15, 2001 EST (#5174 of 5187)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

They Hate Us! They Need Us! by THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/15/opinion/15FRIE.html

"Reading about all the anti-Americanism President Bush has encountered on his trip to Europe, I was reminded of the 1970's Randy Newman song "Political Science." Its main verse was: "No one likes us — I don't know why. / We may not be perfect, but heaven knows we try. / But all around, even our old friends put us down. / Let's drop the big one and see what happens . . . Asia's crowded and Europe's too old. / Africa is far too hot / and Canada's too cold. / And South America stole our name. / Let's drop the big one. There'll be no one left to blame us."

. . . .

" That's why the greatest danger today is not European anti-Americanism, but American anti-Americanism. . . .

including the danger of "American anti-Americanism if

" we have an administration dominated by people unwilling to put any limits on U.S. behavior, from energy consumption to missile defense. That sort of America, if taken to extremes, could nullify our attractiveness and generate an alliance against us. Surely the Bushies know that — don't they?

Those are good questions. Friedman makes (or could be said to make) an assumption that doesn't fit the complexities in the world -- in that he implicitly assumes the US is a simple enough thing that tensions are contradictions. Could the US be both as attractive as some people think, and yet still as ugly as some other people think?

I think the answer is "yes, in different aspects of how the US functions." We should keep the attractive parts, and fix the ugly ones. That would be in our interest, and would adress the valid concerns of our NATO allies, the Russians, the Chinese, and others in the world.

rshowalter - 08:14am Jun 15, 2001 EST (#5175 of 5187)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

It may make perfect sense for the rest of the world to form alliances directed against the "bad parts" of US function -- and this may be possible without any substantial conflict with the "good parts" of US function.

The same thing makes perfect sense for loyal Americans, it seems to me.

Adressing almarst's concerns about the United States would make the US a better place, far more worthy of pride than it now is.

If very many of the criticisms of Russia were adressed as well, that would make for a better, prouder Russia.

lunarchick - 08:20am Jun 15, 2001 EST (#5176 of 5187)
lunarchick@www.com

Friedman: must understand that ...

the 'administration' walk past the 'looking glass' unseeingly

if they had the capacity to think this would be manifest in their actions and responses

if the Administration have heads filled with historically redundant knowledge, not shifting to a new paradigm - it's time they moved on

lunarchick - 08:22am Jun 15, 2001 EST (#5177 of 5187)
lunarchick@www.com

Europe have set out to improve, and have improved, their stats re greenhouse emissions.

If the USA government won't play.

Then perhaps individual people should have the knowledge to reduce their own wastage via a quality tracking procedure they could implement.

lunarchick - 08:31am Jun 15, 2001 EST (#5178 of 5187)
lunarchick@www.com

Bush Wants Russia to Be 'Partner'

Friday June 15, 2001 12:10 pm

WARSAW, Poland (AP) - On the eve of his first meeting with Vladimir Putin, President Bush said Friday he wants to make Russia a ``partner and an ally'' but also to press his Russian counterpart on weapons proliferation.

Bush will also propose to Putin, when the pair meets in Slovenia on Saturday, that they scale down the level of contacts between their two countries in order to lower the profile of arms-control negotiations.

``We want Russia to be a partner and an ally, a partner in peace, a partner in democracy, a country that embraces freedom, a country that enhances the security of Europe,'' Bush said during a state visit to Poland. (Guardian Ldn)

lunarchick - 08:34am Jun 15, 2001 EST (#5179 of 5187)
lunarchick@www.com

Is reading the above in 'diplomatic' different to as read?

with respect to

scale down the level of contacts between their two countries in order to lower the profile of arms-control negotiations

(8 following messages)

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