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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 - 08:10am Jul 19, 2001 EST (#7197 of 7208)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

" Now, the country (those Americans led by the current Administration) is slam-banging into disaster -- throwing every decency imaginable overboard, one by one, in a doomed attempt to avoid having to face what has been done.

" If we faced it, as we must -- there'd be much hope.

" As it is now, --- America is being degraded, besmirched, made ugly - betrayed -- by the people now in control of the Federal government -- with but very few people standing up at all.

" Few are pointing to the obvious, pervasive lies that are so clearly before us.

" There simply is no alternative but for us to put the Cold War behind us. And that means that some core facts - that must be clear, for any reasonable shaping of the future --- must be set out.

" I think that this thread is part of that.

I also think that the country has been degraded in a way FAR WORSE than Casey, at his most cynical, actually imagined -- that the "military-industrial-complex"

. FAREWELL ADDRESS of President Dwight D. Eisenhower January 17, 1961 http://www.geocities.com/~newgeneration/ikefw.htm

Eisenhower warned against, long beyond constitutional supervision, long corrupt, has collectively decided that it likes war, that it likes militarism, that it wants, not peace, but warmaking and weapons building without end -- http://worldpolicy.org/projects/arms/reports/hcrep.html ... and is defended by mechanisms of a "culture of lying" that have degraded and endangered the world.
MD6475 rshowalter 7/3/01 10:51am ... MD6759 rshowalter 7/8/01 7:43am
MD7061rshowalter 7/15/01 10:10pm ...

Here's an article from China's flagship newspaper that makes points that China herself needs to remember, and that Russia, the US, and other nations should, too. . . . . .. Daring to Shoulder Historical Responsibility: Way to Become Big Political Power http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200104/18/eng20010418_67992.html

Here are links about my technical background and orientation: MD6397-99 rshowalter 7/2/01 8:00am

I'm trying, with enormous and distinguished help from Dawn Riley, within the limits of my strength and resources, to get some facts checked.

I'm hoping to set out many arguments, like a case to a jury, subject to crossexamination, and then "pick a fight" - in some way that can work in public -- to establish truths that remain, so far "somehow too weak." The case is far along. On this MD thread, and many other places. Getting to a place where a fight in public is possible is not yet far along -- but perhaps not be so far away as it was.

MD7098 rshowalter 7/16/01 7:52pm .. contains a critique and a challenge. I point out the power that one person, willing to be at risk, can sometimes have, by means of a famous picture of defiance more eloquent than any words I could muster. http://www.christusrex.org/www1/sdc/tank-1.jpg

rshowalter - 08:11am Jul 19, 2001 EST (#7198 of 7208)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

MD7097 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?14@184.KPvva51UrnC^5371092@.f0ce57b/7767.. praises the Guardian-Observer , and especially its wonderful interactive specials, including

Does Starwars work? http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/bush/flash/0,7365,434805,00.html

rshowalter - 08:38am Jul 19, 2001 EST (#7199 of 7208)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

MD7177 rshowalter 7/18/01 10:32pm .... My old partner, the late Professor Steve Kline, of Stanford, told me that when he was a grad student at MIT, the Dean made a point of gathering students together, and telling them about a story. The story was Jules Verne's TWENTY THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA .

No MIT engineer was to leave Cambridge without knowing that lesson.

Somehow, D.O.D. has forgotten it.

rshowalter - 08:44am Jul 19, 2001 EST (#7200 of 7208)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

MD7178 rshowalter 7/18/01 10:53pm ... MD7179 rshowalter 7/18/01 10:54pm
MD7180 rshowalter 7/18/01 10:54pm

We seem to be in interesting times. If technical facts in the open literature can be examined to closure, much may clarify.

For now, there are muddles on matters of life and death where reasonable people have a right, and an obligation, to be careful and expect care from others.

(8 following messages)

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