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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 - 07:24am Jul 23, 2001 EST (#7315 of 7335)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

If the United States government chooses to "go it alone" -- the rest of the world will unite in ways important to peace, prosperity, and ordinary human decency -- and the practical power of the US, for all its huge expenditures for military force, will be shown to have the limits they have.

If Russia takes positions that don't make sense to the rest of the world, than don't fit the interests of the rest of the world, she is powerless. But to the extent she does take stands in the interest of the world, she will gain in respect and power -- and in the kinds of cooperation she needs for prosperity.

And to the extent that the US takes positions, practical and moral, such as the one expressed in a place where US government involvement is to be presumed, in FLYING INTO TURBULENCE by Peter Martin http://www.intellnet.org/news/articles/peter.martin.flying.into.turbulence.html the United States will be showing the world that it does not deserve a leadership role where either moral or practical judgement is concerned. If Martin's sort of view is the kind that the United States shows in words and action, the rest of the world, with plenty of checks and balances available to it, will act on that knowledge.

To a quite noticible extent, that is happening now. I wonder how many Americans would have voted for Bush, had they known how quickly his actions would diminish the world prestige of the United States?

bilbobaggins0 - 07:28am Jul 23, 2001 EST (#7316 of 7335)
The emporer has no brains.

Bush

1. Pro isolationist
2. Anti-enviroment.
3. Pro religious intolerance.
4. Anti-gay.
5. Anti-abortion.
6. Pro big business, especially big oil.
7. Anti little man.

This is what was selected as POTUS.

lunarchick - 08:38am Jul 23, 2001 EST (#7317 of 7335)
lunarchick@www.com

Coyle 16 july 2001
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/military/military.html

rshowalter - 08:55am Jul 23, 2001 EST (#7318 of 7335)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

From NewsHour MISSILE DEFENSE TEST July 16, 2001

PHILIP COYLE: It demonstrated the first capabilities that you would need to hit a bullet with a bullet, as they say. It's like doing a hole in one when the hole is going 15,000 miles an hour. But in the future, we'll have to do that same sort of thing where the hole is in the green with lots of other flags and holes that look just like the real thing. So these are decoys and countermeasures that an enemy might produce.

If you imagine what Coyle said, literally , you'll have a clear sense of how practically hopeless these tests are showing missile defense to be, with current technology - unless a lot of miracles happen, and happen fast, and happen all together. See the Coyle Report . . http://www.house.gov/reform/min/pdf/nmdcoylerep.pdf , which covers tests and difficulties in damning detail, if you want to see how hopeless. The program is a shuck -- not a workable defense of the United States -- and the key people involved, unless they are insane, have to know it.

Also from the same News Hour, an interesting quote from

LIEUTENANT GENERAL RONALD KADISH: The early indications that we have... there's a lot more work to be done, but the early indications that we have is that everything worked in what we call a nominal mode, which is what is expected. However, these tests take many weeks to deduce the data. But we believe we have a successful test in all aspects at this time.

Unless Kadish's command is especially corrupt and incompentent, Kadish had to have been informed of a crucial radar system failure within minutes (hours at the most) and was lying (or choosing words with exquisite care to convey a wrong impression) on national television.

Missile Interception Test Was Hit-and-Miss, Pentagon Reports by JAMES DAO http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/19/national/19RADA.html

MD7255-7257 rshowalter 7/19/01 7:52pm

rshowalter - 09:10am Jul 23, 2001 EST (#7319 of 7335)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

MD2613 rshowalter 4/26/01 11:21am

" Can the military-industrial complex evade clear answers, and, in practical effect, lie to the American people?

Yes.

" Casts of characters are chosen.

" Someone of "total authority and integrity" lies, or evades in a way that has the effect of a lie, and does so in public.

. And he is trusted.

This pattern, and attitudes connected to it, are in the process of being confronted and controlled by other powerholders in the world. There is a certain "loneliness of power" that the United States should cower from deserving. MD2087 rshowalter 4/8/01 8:22am ... MD2586 rshowalter 4/25/01 11:50am

Tyrannososaurus was a beast
that had no friends, to say the least.
It ruled the ancient out-of-doors,
and slaughtered other dinosuars

from TYRANNOSAURUS WAS A BEAST: Dinosaur Poems by Jack Prelustsky illustrated by Arnold Lobel ....

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