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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?

almarst-2001 - 10:20pm Jun 18, 2001 EST (#5406 of 5414)

Thanks.

midmoon - 10:49pm Jun 18, 2001 EST (#5407 of 5414)

Isaiah Berlin,a British thinker from Russia, once complimented Alexander Herzen,a Jewish journalist and thinker fled from Russia to France for political reasons, as the sole thinker for propheting that the all kinds of humans' revolutions ultimately end up in vains.

According to Berlin,Herzen ,originally a fervent believer of the revolution, changed his thoughts atter he witnessed the French Revolution in 1848.

To wit,it is said that he became to find the fact that the ideology the French Revolution had claimed to stand for made the people the slaves or the scape goats under the good name of future happiness.

Berlin alignig himself with Herzen said that the revolutionists tend to always invent new types of devices to sacrifice the mankind under the abstract causes of the people,the class,the progress,the power of the history and etc.

With no doubt,all the communist revolutions and the rise of the Pascism in the history of the world sall fall into these categories.

Now it may be the fundamentalism and the racism prevailing in various regions of the world that we must be cautious of.

What makes the situations more significant and serious would the worst scenarios the the fundamentalism and the racism and any other ideologies other than the free democratism and market economism are to be mixed up with the nuclear weapons.

Anybody in this forum can not deny these possibilities to happen with the rogue countries.

What is important in giving up the MD scheme for the US is the explicit transparency for the part of the rogue countries of not willing to have nucler weapons.

But they are refusing to show any evidence that they are innocent.

What shall we the villagers in the world-ville do?

What do you think Mr.Bob,Mr.Possumdag et al..?

dirac_10 - 11:09pm Jun 18, 2001 EST (#5408 of 5414)

Shooting down the ICBM's is actually very easy.

You would want a layered defense. Strong like plywood.

But the boost phase is a real sitting duck. Slow, thin skinned, and glowing hot. Lasers or missles can hit the booster and destroy it easily. There are press rumors that the Aegis destroyers can do it already. The booster burns long after it clears the atmosphere. You could hit it with a rock.

And of course, identifying the chaff and hitting the warhead in flight. And hitting the warhead as it enters the atmosphere.

With lasers and missles and who knows what else.

lunarchick - 05:20am Jun 19, 2001 EST (#5409 of 5414)
lunarchick@www.com

Re the French Revolution, the peasants wanted better - presumably the Industrial Revolution had started and they wanted to BE IN IT - along with personal rights. The leadership is depicted as being 'out of touch' with the nation.

The rise of Hitler was linked to the collapse of an economy .. was Madman Hitler a master speaker .. or did he just fan discontent and look for 'others' to blame.

On Childrens Stories .. does Dr Seuss figure .. or his his work really 'reading exercises' .. in that the Anderson Brothers collection were 'stories' that were passed down from generation to generation. Are there any 'stories' in Seuss that you hear parents telling children (when the book is not visible)?

Additional to Anderson tales, there are the National/Myths stories.

A question to ask re stories is 'what is the point of the story' .. what purpose does it serve.

Some stories attempt to give an explanation of creation, moral behaviours, the value of following the golden rule .. good boy wins out and gets the girl ... etc ..

What's the story re missiles ..... the nuclear winter story .. take a look at the fall-out kids around the world ... nuclear nightmares!

Interesting that the Aborigines have a story about BULLA the Evil-Spirit that lives in the Uranium rich red earth of Kakadu Country ... their story simply stays "STAY AWAY" ... the uranium deposits cause sickness.

lunarchick - 05:51am Jun 19, 2001 EST (#5410 of 5414)
lunarchick@www.com

Dirac said in response to GI's post: dirac_10 - 08:30pm Jun 18, 2001 EST (#5403 of 5410)

What a vast wasteland this forum is. No axiomatic system is complete. Including freedom of speech.

Added to the list of incompleteness, I suppose, is sheer volume. So much absolute drivel, that no sane person would want to flip through it. Effectively shutting out conversation on the subject.

Uh, do the voices go away when typing?

Seems pretty disrespectful from where i sit. Dirac if the forum isn't to your liking - don't stay.

rshowalter - 06:07am Jun 19, 2001 EST (#5411 of 5414)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

If anyone thinks this forum is a "vast wasteland" -- there's an easy way to check. Sample it. There's a red "display thread" button at the top of each page display. Click it, and then click on the thread, anywhere. If you want to look at it when I was involved, after #266. You can't read it all easily, but you can sample it easily. If you want to value it -- look at the postings by almarst and gisterme -- how serious they are, and how extensive they are.

This thread is an effort to develop a pattern for communication, capable of dealing with complexity and real human needs for conversation (which involves a lot of word count) -- and I believe that, if you trace how things have developed, it can be said to be somewhat successful.

It deals with a matter of life and death where I'm concerned, and think the work worth the effort. If you check, you'll find that there's a substantical body of common ground, and shared fact, between posters, who I believe have contacts with influential others, that has come into focus through the "vast" -- or extensive dialog on this thread.

Extensive word counts are routine elsewhere. Have you ever read court transcripts of jury trials?

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