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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 - 07:37pm Aug 19, 2001 EST (#7923 of 7932)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Excerpts from Introducing the China Ruling Party by THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/11/opinion/11FRIE.html

" That's why I believe Mr. Jiang's decision to invite in capitalists is historic, marking the end of the Chinese Communist Party and its rebirth as the China Ruling Party — a military-business alliance. Whether it will now follow the same political evolution as, say, South Korea is the question.

" Don't expect a loosening anytime soon. To the contrary, China's joining the World Trade Organization this year is going to force the country's peasant-farmers and workers into a wrenching transition, as they will now be exposed more than ever to international competition and rules. In the short run this will intensify the already considerable unrest among the unemployed in the countryside and prompt crackdowns from Beijing. You can already feel it. Western reporters in China are increasingly, and brazenly, being telephoned at their offices by Chinese citizens who report disturbances or expose corruption, particularly in the countryside.

" Indeed, it is not exaggeration to say that the internal politics of China today are the reverse of 1989, when the Tiananmen massacre took place. In 1989 it was Chinese students and intellectuals who were most in ferment, and workers and peasants who were the bulwark of the regime. More than a decade later, students and entrepreneurs have benefited enormously from China's opening with the world, and from the increase here in personal freedoms, stability and economic opportunity. But the workers and peasants, who are slowly losing many of the health, education and welfare benefits of the Communist system — and don't have the resources to compensate — are increasingly agitated.

" Stay tuned. The stakes could not be bigger. We are talking about 1.3 billion people — one-fifth of humanity. How China's leaders manage this transition will affect everything from the air we breathe to the economic stability of the world we live in.

" In summary, I'd say this: To predict that China's leaders will liberalize anytime soon would be naïve; but to assume that they are incapable of adapting would be to underestimate them. To be silent about their excesses as they proceed would be irresponsible; but to wish for their failure, let alone contribute to it, would be insane.

. . . . .

Comment: These are hopeful times, and real changes are going on. If we're careful, and check our work, the world could get measurably better, in a practical way.

rshowalter - 08:40pm Aug 19, 2001 EST (#7924 of 7932)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Some points at the level of operationally very practical aesthetics, in the interest of human survival and decency:
MD2706-2709 rshowalter 4/28/01 11:22am ... MD2887 rshowalter 5/1/01 12:31pm
MD3213-3214 rshowalter 5/4/01 7:27am ... MD3258-3262 rshowalter 5/4/01 3:46pm
MD3284-3287 rshowalter 5/4/01 5:50pm ... MD3423 rshowalter 5/8/01 4:12pm

And especially
MD4507 rshowalter 6/5/01 12:20am ... which refers to four movies:
West Side Story , which is a modern retelling of Romeo and Juliet ; Dr. Strangelove ; Mary Poppins ; and, in my view perhaps the richest of all movies, Casablanca.

MD3383 rshowalter 5/6/01 8:36pm ... MD3384 rshowalter 5/6/01 8:37pm
MD3385 rshowalter 5/6/01 8:41pm

lunarchick - 02:06am Aug 20, 2001 EST (#7925 of 7932)
lunarchick@www.com

Read the links above Showalter - i was taken by this:

"With Secretary Powell's military background, he has a position on missile defense that is driven less by ideology than by practical considerations, said a senior administration official familiar with his thinking" ~ http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/19/international/americas/19DIPL.html?pagewanted=2

Powell is one smart cookie - a kelly doll who when knocked - won't fall face down in the mud. He seems to have done some checking and knows the limited reality of Missile_potentials!

That he doesn't fratanise@theRanch shows a more independent stance.

EU folks would do well to talk with him.

lunarchick - 05:32am Aug 20, 2001 EST (#7926 of 7932)
lunarchick@www.com

No coasting here, 101 islands of truth make up a whole dalmation:
Bwsh hit the Oz_news re his 'suffer little children' demand for ETHICS and TRUTH
and here theatre critics [ Wall Street Journal columnist Paul Gigot and Time columnist Margaret Carlson discuss President Bush's week ] re the bwsh pantomine: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/shields&gigot/august01/gc_8-17.html Bwsh cuts his farm_experience by 3 days .. to go Camping_David.

lunarchick - 06:25am Aug 20, 2001 EST (#7927 of 7932)
lunarchick@www.com

10:10

lunarchick - 06:28am Aug 20, 2001 EST (#7928 of 7932)
lunarchick@www.com

ARMS_sales up 8% http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/20/international/20ARMS.html

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