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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 - 12:31pm Jun 18, 2001 EST (#5357 of 5365)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

The new possibilities work for both defense and offense -- and that includes deterrance.

If I was a leader of a NATO nation state, or Russia, or the United States, and negotiations with real consequences mattered to me, I'd seriously consider getting all the true and probably true information I could on my "opposite numbers" -- both for information, for praise, and for blame. For instance, if I were Putin, I'd do what almarst often does well, and "get the goods" on American leaders that mattered. Only more so.

If I were Bush, I'd do the same.

If everybody was "reading from the same page" in this fashion, lying would be more dangerous, truth safer -- and odds are good that everybody would find plenty of reason to be accomodating and polite.

More graceful than now -- with less bluffing.

With the internet, getting at the truth, including truths that hurt, is easier than ever before. Nation states, prepared to threaten each other in other ways, should surely inform themselves in these ways. Almost always, I believe, this would serve the cause of stability and peace.

And I'd seriously consider ways of getting that information out -- there are more of them than ever before, especially with the relaxation of "unwritten rules." For instance, spamming to distribute information, not for profit, might be hard or impossible to defend against, and in some cases, justified. Just a few web adresses, in the right hands, can pack a persuasive whallop. Not so much when they contain falsehoods. But very much when they contain truths.

rshowalter - 12:32pm Jun 18, 2001 EST (#5358 of 5365)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

midmoon, China is more vulnerable to the truth than she used to be - and the argument that China has agressive intent isn't very persuasive.

rshowalter - 12:51pm Jun 18, 2001 EST (#5359 of 5365)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

midmoon, I'm glad you like an open society - and free markets -- I do, too. But we are all members of societies -- and have to be -- how many of the 100,000+ words you know, in English and other languages, did you originate?

We're all part of a larger society much bigger, in many ways, than we can even imagine. And if individual freedom is important, and of course it is, some sensitivity to society as a whole makes sense, too.

Anyway, as Thomas Friedman has so often pointed out -- with the internet, it is becoming more and more possible to run open societies -- harder and harder to run closed ones. A big reason is that the internet fits the way people work.

midmoon - 01:04pm Jun 18, 2001 EST (#5360 of 5365)

Dear Bob,

I suggest you to have some views from the other shores.

And I envy you very much of your energy and passions you've shown in this forum.

By the way,you must be belong to a leisure class with abundant time.

Now the needles of my clock is gonna point 2 o'clock A.M.

I must go to bed now because I must go to work early this morning.

Life is difficult for me but I'll never lose hopes.

Thanks for your comments.

Auf wiedersehen!

from the other shore of the pacific.

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