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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 - 04:44pm Sep 4, 2001 EST (#8444 of 8469)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Celebrity sure makes a difference. People want things vivid, and personal.

rshowalter - 04:53pm Sep 4, 2001 EST (#8445 of 8469)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Understanding makes a difference, too.

On issues of "human response to threat" and "tactical and strategic use of nuclear weapons" there are paradigm conflicts involving questions of fact and explicit logic that need to be resolved to break the impasse.

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MD1056 rshowalter 3/15/01 7:10pm

To sort these things out takes discussion, and checking everybody (or almost everybody) finds credible.

And ideas that are clear, and well explained.

Ideally, explained by a celebrity. Jesse Ventura might be a good one, for this stuff. Or Schwartzenegger. The key points here are basic, not high-toned.

And you don't have to be a pacifist to understand them.

rshowalter - 04:58pm Sep 4, 2001 EST (#8446 of 8469)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

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lunarchick - 04:59pm Sep 4, 2001 EST (#8447 of 8469)
lunarchick@www.com

Sorry: Appologies for the past?

rshowalter - 05:08pm Sep 4, 2001 EST (#8448 of 8469)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

At least people have to know that past -- it is unsafe not to.

So they can make decent decisions about the future.

Maybe we should think about what it would take for a "world insurance policy."
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rshowalter - 05:11pm Sep 4, 2001 EST (#8449 of 8469)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

You know who'd be a good celebrity to explain this stuff if he wanted to? Ted Turner . Tougher than anybody. People know it.

ledzeppelin - 05:12pm Sep 4, 2001 EST (#8450 of 8469)

Re "rshowalter - 04:38pm Sep 4, 2001 EST (#8442 of 8447) That's a great idea. If people can be held accountable for the human damages they do -- even a little -- it might eliminate some horrors."

Would you extend this to any nation that is a global environmental polluter...... Such rogue nations should they also pay up, as such nations will kill more in our global village than any war has managed to do, to date?

rshowalter - 05:15pm Sep 4, 2001 EST (#8451 of 8469)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Plus, Bush, Putin, and the Joint Chiefs would have sense enough to be scared of Ted Turner.

There aren't many people that powerful and free in the whole world. He could get to the truth if he wanted to . . and know how to put it across.

lunarchick - 05:15pm Sep 4, 2001 EST (#8452 of 8469)
lunarchick@www.com

so, National borders are a myth .. when complex webs are woven ..

rshowalter - 05:16pm Sep 4, 2001 EST (#8453 of 8469)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

I think effluent changes make plenty of sense -- especially if they're spent on solving the problem.

We should be able to solve the global warming problem. Not just cope with it.

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