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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 - 10:28pm Jun 20, 2001 EST (#5624 of 5636)

rshowalter wrote: "And it is surely true that accomodations take some time. And much dialog..."

Geez, Robert...will you give me some rest? :-) You're worse than my girlfriend when it comes to wanting the last word. :-) Giggle...

Of course accomodations take some time, but not much dialog. You just call the travel agent, tell them where you want to stay and they take care of the rest. :-)

COOPERAION is what takes hard work, at least until trust is built. Sorry you don't agree. :-(

lunarchick - 10:33pm Jun 20, 2001 EST (#5625 of 5636)
lunarchick@www.com

The private lives of animals (including human) can progress without dialogue.

rshowalter - 10:34pm Jun 20, 2001 EST (#5626 of 5636)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

That article didn't make Kennedy look so good -- argued that Johnson was plenty constrained by things Kennedy had done. The results, whichever President made which key decisions, were awful.

But for people thinking about nuclear weapons, they didn't seem so awful - because beside the risk of nukes, and the idea of using nukes -- anything seems justifiable.

I think McNamara sometimes reasoned that way.

rshowalter - 10:35pm Jun 20, 2001 EST (#5627 of 5636)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

And comfort doesn't always come from confidence in a bald, unverified assertion (unverified by the listener, that is.)

gisterme 6/20/01 10:24pm writes:

"But Kissinger DOESN'T deserve what Friedman wrote, which removes the entire basis for your statement.

If I'm entirely ready to discount Friedman's judgement on the matter -- judgement he's confident enough to print -- and he's a careful fellow at times (at the TIMES), then that disposes of my argument.

Problem is, I often suspect Friedman has good reasons for what he says.

rshowalter - 10:36pm Jun 20, 2001 EST (#5628 of 5636)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

almarst sometimes seems to feel that Friedman is slightly to the right of Louis the Fourteenth.

lunarchick - 10:45pm Jun 20, 2001 EST (#5629 of 5636)
lunarchick@www.com

The Sun King left a tourist legacy, whereas the carpet bombing of LAOS is the legacy left by JFK & Johnson ... that no one wants to clean up!

lunarchick - 10:58pm Jun 20, 2001 EST (#5630 of 5636)
lunarchick@www.com

A note i made (GUsciParadigmThread):

If new thinking is a 'process' then the external factors affecting process will include factors from the old environment, the discarding of the redundant, factors from the new environment, and the organisation of the factors to facilitate process.

lunarchick - 11:11pm Jun 20, 2001 EST (#5631 of 5636)
lunarchick@www.com

Aspects of post-post-coldwar thinking will include:

- cooperation

- ah! complex-cooperaton

- reading from the same page

- done via expose of lies v TRUTH of C20

- a lessening of suspicison and discomfort

- interaction of leaderships

- desire for advancement of nation(s)

- a desire for PEACE

- Sans: arrogance/superiority/bullying/& ISMS

rshowalter - 11:13pm Jun 20, 2001 EST (#5632 of 5636)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

And maybe, sometimes, the ability to imagine what hadn't been imagined before.

I think almarst does reflect Russian thinking . . . . anyway, if so, this posting is one gisterme should read and understand, and in some sense, learn to sympathize with, and to adapt to: MD5556 almarst-2001 6/20/01 5:11pm

rshowalter - 11:18pm Jun 20, 2001 EST (#5633 of 5636)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

If you read the thread, the reasons almarst objects to missile defense involve issues of background and motivation --- if these issues were dealt with adequately -- that is, adequately for Russia and other nations -- then perhaps missile defense wouldn't be a very difficult issue to resolve.

Missile defense would also be very much less needed -- because the US would be less hated, and more able to defend itself from monsters in ways that require the wholehearted cooperation of many other nations.

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