|
![[F]](../_images/site.gif) New York Times on the Web Forums  Science
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?
    (6992 previous messages)
rshowalter
- 09:26am Jul 13, 2001 EST (#6993
of 7001) 
Robert Showalter
showalte@macc.wisc.edu
Great links! The PBS web page on Missile Defense is
impressive -- how powerful television can be -- and how the memory
of the web enhances it! http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/military/nmd_splash.html
Senator Levin was impressive last night. Undersecretary
Wolfowitz was clear, and said interesting things.
I disagree with much that Wolfowitz said, at the level of balance
and priority, for reasons discussed at length on this thread,
especially with gisterme , our stand-in representative for
the Bush administration.
For reasons discussed in detail here, and not
effectively disputed, the shield being proposed has a vanishingly
small chance of working effectively.
The effort to make a shield, which has consumed,
as I hear on PBS, something like a hundred billion dollars
over forty years with astonishly little workable output, is
certain to continue to be terribly expensive, wasting chances, and
closing off reasonable hopes in the military equivalent of the
emperor's new clothes.
The missile shield proposed, in the terribly
unlikely even it could be made to work, is, as Senator
Levin explained deployed against barely credible
threats , ignoring much larger threats.
The missile shield, in development according to
the patterns of the Bush admiistration, is setting up an
environment for a new arms race, and for new anger and violence -
increasing the danger of the world.
But it is also clear that the administration, though it may be
committed, whenever it matters, to the needs of the military
industrial complex, also has other things in mind.
Undersecretary Wolfowitz ended the PBS discussion with Levin last
night with this:
" What is certain is that we want to move as
quickly as possible to build an entirely different structure with
Russian. Not one that is build on maintaining the mutual balance
of terror, but one that is based on mutual security
interests."
To actually do that - we have to deal with facts , and
matters of proportion and feelings as they are.
As of now, if that is what it wants, the Bush administration has
to be much more perceptive than it has been -- for it is, much too
often, defeating, and acting strongly against, that vital purpose.
lunarchick
- 09:33am Jul 13, 2001 EST (#6994
of 7001)
lunarchick@www.com
French
Missile on take-off with Observers.
rshowalter
- 09:50am Jul 13, 2001 EST (#6995
of 7001)
Robert Showalter
showalte@macc.wisc.edu
Repubicans, and members of the Bush administration, ought to read
a wonderful piece in Fortune , which is plainly not a left
wing magazine.
BIRNBAUM
ON WASHINGTON ..Wheres W? The big question in Washington: How did
Bush go so wrong so fast? .......FORTUNE.COM Thursday, July 12, 2001
By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
" Official Washington wants to know not What
Happened to Chandra Levy, but What Happened to President Bush? How
did the new CEO in town go so wrong so fast? "
It seems to me that the answer is sad, but clear. When it is time
to look at facts, and come to a balanced decision, the Bush
administration is acting in systematically ugly ways. Working, again
and again -- against the reasonable, the beautiful, and the
sane.
lunarchick
- 09:57am Jul 13, 2001 EST (#6996
of 7001)
lunarchick@www.com
The Human Development Report was cited several times by Nobel
Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi in a videotaped opening keynote
address at the NGO Forum on 31 August. She singled out the 1994
report for noting that human security is not one of weapons --
"it is a concern with human life and dignity." She also
highlighted the report's call for empowerment, "development by the
people and not only for them." She added, "And people include women
who make up at least half of the world's population." ~
gopher://gopher.undp.org:70/00/unconfs/women/conf/rep/13160913
gopher://gopher.undp.org/1/unconfs/women/conf/rep
  (5
following messages)
   
New York Times on the Web Forums Science
Missile Defense
|
