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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 - 03:13pm Aug 19, 2001 EST (#7912 of 7932)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

A WEEK'S NYT COVERAGE OF MISSILE DEFENSE

Miscommunication in Moscow http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/15/opinion/15WED2.html
After all the bonhomie between George W. Bush and Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, the frosty arms talks between American and Russian officials in Moscow this week were disappointing.

Russians Resist Rumsfeld Effort to Set Aside ABM Treaty By THOM SHANKER http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/14/international/14RUMS.html
The defense secretary met President Vladimir V. Putin and his defense minister for talks that highlighted disagreements over whether to deploy missile defenses, how to slash nuclear arsenals and whether arms control talks can even be the tool to bridge their differences.

Remembering a Tax Cut, and Revisiting a Debate By TODD S. PURDUM http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/14/politics/14REAG.html
Michael Reagan, son of former President Ronald Reagan, marked the 20th anniversary of his father's landmark tax reductions.

Our Best Defense To the Editor: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/13/opinion/L13MISS.html

Moscow's Differences With U.S. Apparent During Talks By THOM SHANKER http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/13/international/13CND-RUMS.html

" Disagreements over missile defense and arms control were at the forefront of a meeting today.....

" It was a day in which Mr. Putin spoke of negotiations, and Mr. Rumsfeld spoke of consultations to create a new relationship in which treaties are unnecessary.

" When Sergei B. Ivanov, the Russian defense minister, said any deployment of missile defenses must be tightly linked to reducing warheads, Mr. Rumsfeld only agreed that the two issues were related.

Rumsfeld Puts Missile Plan on Table Monday in Moscow By THOM SHANKER http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/13/international/europe/13RUMS.html
Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld arrived in Moscow on Monday to discuss a new strategic military framework with Russia.

15 Antimissile Protesters Face Felony Charges By THE NEW YORK TIMES http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/12/national/12PROT.html
A federal grand jury has charged 15 Greenpeace activists arrested in a protest of the Star Wars program last month with felonies.

A New Threat to the President's Agenda: The Tax Cut By RICHARD W. STEVENSON http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/12/weekinreview/12STEV.html
Two months after he signed it into law, the tax cut now threatens to complicate the rest of President Bush's agenda and expose him to political peril.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

And, I think importantly,

The President's Textual Relations By KENNETH CMIEL http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/19/weekinreview/19CMIE.html
An article very connected to issues of negotiation dealt with on this forum.

"YET unlike a pugnacious talk show host, Mr. Bush was looking to conciliate. That is what made his neutral recitation of the different sides so important. At least on this issue, Mr. Bush can't affirm community by calling the nation back to its common core, the way Washington, Lincoln or Roosevelt did. The divides are too deep.

"Here, though, the nation can find community by listening to each other.

rshowalter - 03:22pm Aug 19, 2001 EST (#7913 of 7932)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

" Mr. Bush can't affirm community by calling the nation back to its common core, the way Washington, Lincoln or Roosevelt did. The divides are too deep.

That makes it essential that we agree on "islands of fact" on which we base important decisions. However we happen to feel about them.

Unless we can do that, we are no community at all, and are engaged in defrauding each other.

On the key technical issues about missile defense, the key technical facts can be established. Set out in public, subject to examination from all sides. Well explained. Set out beyond any reasonable doubt. Set out in ways that should be persuasive, to politicians and voters as they are.

This can be done in institutionally credible ways.

There are reasons why this needs to be done -- and can be -- and why the motivations of powerful, responsible, public spirited actors are arranging themselves so that I believe that it will be.

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