New York Times on the Web Forums Science

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 - 10:34pm Jul 10, 2001 EST (#6908 of 6917)

"For globalism to work, American can't be afraid to act like the almighty superpower that it is....The hidden hand of the market will never work without a hidden fist — McDonald's cannot flourish without McDonnell Douglas, the designer of the F-15. And the hidden fist that keeps the world safe for Silicon Valley's technologies is called the United States Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps."

"What the World Needs Now," Thomas Friedman, New York Times, March 28, 1999

almarst-2001 - 10:38pm Jul 10, 2001 EST (#6909 of 6917)

It seems Mr. Bush just picked it up where the Mr. Friedman dropped it down.

Any regrets at NYT?

jimmyz211a - 11:19pm Jul 10, 2001 EST (#6910 of 6917)

By the time all the arguments are in. The missile defense shield will be outdated, and if built, way over budget. I think it would be a gigantic waste of tax payer dollars. US missile cruisers can be adapted to shoot these missiles down. I served on an Adams class guided missile destroyer built in 1960. The USS Lawrence DDG-4 could shoot down any misile or plane that would have been stupid enough to attack us.We did it time and time again in our gunnery and missile shoots. If 1950's technology can shoot down missiles metal to metal or expanding rod then let's try that out before we spent billions of dollars on something that people don't want and our own fellow NATO countries don't want us to build. A terrorist can now walk into a city with a W-88 suitcase nuclear bomb. Technology stolen fromus by our pals the Chinese. Or a ship or plane can be sent into a city and have its atomic cargo explode because our enforcement of our borders is a joke. We would never fire on a ship or a plane because our rules of engagement are ridiculous. Our soldiers can't even have a clip of ammunition loaded into their weapons. The only country I have seen do this suicidal rules of engagement procedure. Just ask the families of the 250 dead Marines and sailors who were blown up by a truck bomb that was alowed to drive right by a checkpoint in Lebanon in 1983. They had no chance.

James Ziolkowski Buffalo NY shellback211@aol.com ten year Navy veteran.

merllyynn - 12:27am Jul 11, 2001 EST (#6911 of 6917)

Imagine........a world in which the US maintained an effective missile defense.....and retained its offensive capability.......did someone say Pax Americana, the Roman peace ONLY lasted 300 years.........

lunarchick - 01:59am Jul 11, 2001 EST (#6912 of 6917)
lunarchick@www.com

War and Peace ... when & where was the Roman Peace .. ?

lunarchick - 07:55am Jul 11, 2001 EST (#6913 of 6917)
lunarchick@www.com

""Hundreds of Russian Interior Ministry troops backed by helicopter gunships swept into this Chechen village and a neighboring one on July 3 and 4.

They arrested 1,500 people, looted homes and vehicles and subjected male residents to beatings and electric shocks from hand-cranked generators, said dozens of witnesses interviewed here and in Sernovodsk in the last two days.

The large-scale "mopping up" operation followed two mine blasts on roads outside these villages that killed at least four Russian soldiers and wounded a number of others.

Village elders here and in Sernovodsk said civilians were then singled out unfairly for a day of terror by the column of Russian troops. ........ There they made them lie face down in the sun all day, or crowded them into open pits, their shirts pulled over their heads in sweltering heat. Many residents who tried to see what was happening were beaten with rifle butts. Then, one by one, the men were taken for violent interrogation sessions.

One of those tortured was Ruslan Payzulayev, 38, a deaf mute, who was pulled away from his mother at No. 2 Lenin Street here, over her protests that he was handicapped.

"They hit him in the mouth to make him talk," said his sister, Sonya, translating her brother's sign language. "They put a belt on him and fixed wires to him and applied current." ""

lunarchick - 08:20am Jul 11, 2001 EST (#6914 of 6917)
lunarchick@www.com

EUROPE: Russia slated over abuses in Chechnya
Financial Times; Jul 11, 2001
By ANDREW JACK

The Council of Europe yesterday launched an unprecedented attack on Russia for failing to co-operate in investigations into human rights abuses in the breakaway republic of Chechnya.

In only the third such reprimand in the last 11 years, the Council's Committee for the Prevention of Torture accused the Russians of blocking inquiries and preventing publication of its findings.

The committee highlighted a "disturbing" and "clearly untenable" claim by the Russian authorities that there was no detention centre in late 1999 and early 2000 in the Chechen village of Chernokozovo, the location of many cases of alleged abuse, in spite of clear facts to the contrary.

It also criticised as "very unsatisfactory" the failure of the Russian authorities to follow the committee's demands to increase their efforts to investigate allegations of ill-treatment of Chechens. ~ !

lunarchick - 08:32am Jul 11, 2001 EST (#6915 of 6917)
lunarchick@www.com

Human Rights & Russia

~ Reports http://www.hrw.org/reports/2000/russia_chechnya4/

(2 following messages)

New York Times on the Web Forums Science Missile Defense