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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 - 02:14pm Sep 1, 2001 EST (#8298 of 8302)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

With the ingenuity the Bush administration is now devoting to making its case for missile defense (and you have to credit them with ingenuity and initiative on this) they could probably figure out how to achieve real peace, solve the global warming problem, and assure the whole world an adequate and safe energy supply, forever.

They'd get a lot more credit for that than they're getting for what they're now doing.

MD7968 rshowalter 8/21/01 9:06pm

rshowalter - 02:15pm Sep 1, 2001 EST (#8299 of 8302)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Sometimes high-flown "academic" discussions miss basic points that even a monkey could see. MD7965 rshowalter 8/21/01 9:03pm

ARMED TO EXCESS by Bob Kerrey http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/02/opinion/02KERR.html

I think the "Koko series" MD6559 lunarchick 7/4/01 8:27pm to MD6597 rshowalter 7/4/01 10:23pm fits and is entertaining here.

MD6345 rshowalter 6/30/01 4:02pm

rshowalter - 03:52pm Sep 1, 2001 EST (#8300 of 8302)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

We need to know what is hopeless -- so we can have a chance of finding practical hope.

Too many "constraints" mean "no solution as posed."

Lots of math problems, as posed, clearly have "no solution." That's true of lots of engineering problems, as well. In these (very common) cases, satisfying some of the conditions rules out the possibily of satsifying others.

For human survival, we need solutions ithat people can "live with." .... ("Live with" in every sense of the phrase.)

Consider the limitations, the constraints, and the human concerns and responsibilities clearly connected to the following.

" Even with the end of the Cold War, U.S. missile silos are poised to launch" ... CNN's Special Report, " Rehearsing Doomsday ," http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2000/democracy/nuclear/stories/nukes/index.html

. THREATS TO USE NUCLEAR WEAPONS: The Sixteen Known Nuclear Crises of the Cold War, 1946-1985 by David R. Morgan , National President, Veterans Against Nuclear Arms Vancouver, Canada March 6, 1996 http://scienceforpeace.sa.utoronto.ca/WorkingGroupsPage/NucWeaponsPage/Documents/ThreatsNucWea.html . . . . MD7356 rshowalter 7/23/01 11:01pm

" Now, the world could easily end, all sorts of people, including people in rich, mostly Republican churches know it, and yet nobody seems to know what to do about it. When the foundations are shaking" http://www.wisc.edu/rshowalt/sermon.html

It is a strictly bipartisan mess ... the Bush administration faces the situation it does ... and the Russians do, too. ... MD6932 rshowalter 7/11/01 4:24pm

Our technical infrastructure, and the accountability arrangements, technical and financial, associated with it, are in disarray.

The Coyle Report http://www.fas.org/spp/starwars/program/nmdcoylerep.pdf

rshowalter - 03:54pm Sep 1, 2001 EST (#8301 of 8302)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

The hopes of Ted Turner and others for elimination of nuclear weapons are clear, and backed by great, generous committment.

. Press Statement by Ted Turner Announcing the Nuclear Threat Initiative http://www.unfoundation.org/unfnews/other/turner_20010111.asp January 8, 2001

But these hopes exist in a context where the Cold War has shaped all of society, and the experience of the established experts. Patterns are in place that are the exact opposite of openness - - designed to frustrate predictability, and make rational trust ridiculous.

. NUNN-WOLFOWITZ TASK FORCE REPORT: INDUSTRY "BEST PRACTICES" REGARDING EXPORT COMPLIANCE PROGRAMS http://164.109.59.52/library/pdf/nunnwolfowitz.pdf July 25, 2000

rshowalter - 03:55pm Sep 1, 2001 EST (#8302 of 8302)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

No solution consistent with the "constraints" implied in the circumstances above is possible.

For human survival, we need solutions that people can "live with." ....

WE NEED A REFRAMING . . .

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