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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?

lunarchick - 07:58pm Sep 5, 2001 EST (#8518 of 8536)
lunarchick@www.com

'Cold War' needs a definition. If wrcooper thinks that the cold war is over: firstly what did he understand by cold war, as against how others interpreted this; secondly, what was the game play of it - using which people with attitudes, and their implementing what toys of death.

lunarchick - 08:05pm Sep 5, 2001 EST (#8519 of 8536)
lunarchick@www.com

San Francisco and New York ... breath easy .. the impending visit from the Aussie PM (lawyer) has been cancelled.

Our top pirate too busy holding Afghans to ransom on the high seas, <"thankyou God for the Taliban" he calls .. "I will win the next election"> to sample these downtown city delights. Chats with Bwsh will remain on the menu ... Bwsh being FOR free trade, excepting for USA farm products - his voter constituency. Howard will be arranging how to accommodate some of the US military on Aussie soil .. as they are labelled 'unwanted' in Japan/phillipines/Taiwan.

rshowalter - 08:08pm Sep 5, 2001 EST (#8520 of 8536)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

MD8517 wrcooper 9/5/01 6:08pm

I don't disagree with you other arguments about missile defense. They're right, and important. The reason I think the technical argument is important is that it can be made clear , beyond any reasonable doubt, on the basis of open literature. And, in significant ways, beyond politics.

We need some "islands of technical fact" to be determined, beyond reasonable doubt, or in a clear context.

What I'm proposing is explained, using a NYT article as a partial exemplar, in

MD8211rshowalter 8/28/01 5:35pm

MD8212 rshowalter 8/28/01 6:07pm ... MD8213 rshowalter 8/28/01 6:15pm
MD8214 rshowalter 8/28/01 6:23pm ... MD815 rshowalter 8/28/01 6:42pm

We're dealing with a huge boondoggle here -- and I feel that if that were shown then some good things would flow.

The military is running a "confidence game" here -- and we need to show reasons to withdraw confidence. Reasons that a lot of practical, down-to-earth people can understand..

lunarchick - 08:10pm Sep 5, 2001 EST (#8521 of 8536)
lunarchick@www.com

On lawyers in and on the fringes of politics one gets to wondering if these guys penned the book of proverbs. The ying/yang of proverbs ... each with an opposite ... have helped ensure that there's an answer for everything.

In relation to MD and the cold war ... what are the appropriate proverbs. If a missile blows and the rejoiner is launched .. "whoops there goes another kerr-plop" .. then which proverb and rejoiner would be appropriate?

lunarchick - 08:16pm Sep 5, 2001 EST (#8522 of 8536)
lunarchick@www.com

Excellent employment opportunities in the USA Wire-tap dept

rshowalter - 08:20pm Sep 5, 2001 EST (#8523 of 8536)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

In this thread, we have a serous discussion (dry run or not) from people who well represent the US and Russia, about what total nuclear disarmament and much reduced military tension would take. And missile defense is only a relatively small part of the whole picture.

What's needed is to end patterns of agressiveness, in the US, that are now coming to light, and that much of the whole world is now reacting against.

If they were ended, in workable ways, enormous progress toward peace would be possible. This thread illustrates that.

rshowalter - 08:25pm Sep 5, 2001 EST (#8524 of 8536)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Out for tonight.

lunarchick - 08:47pm Sep 5, 2001 EST (#8525 of 8536)
lunarchick@www.com

Noticed this in an Editorial ...

MD: 'I can only speculate that it's filial, stemming from his fear of repeating his father's fatal mistake of alienating the right wing.'

That conflicted a little with talk here Mr Congeniality [DAVID BROOKS: It is at my country club - ] ... (aesthetically pleasing ... such a change from the hideous convention of black and blue ... aren't guys supposed to be the peacocks, don't robins wear a red breast plate, male oz-frogs have a red line marking from knee to hip, and real American men wear feathered head gear? ).. here ...

JIM LEHRER: Isn't there a huge political shadow over all of this, David, and what happened to President Bush's father President Bush after... during his first term when he didn't get a second term largely because he didn't understand the economy, he was turning sour for so many people

bringing me back to my thought that both the Bushes are Right of Right. Hell a family who dabble in commissions from the instruments of death, have conflict of interest <presidency v carlyle> .. look for TV wars to use up old stockpiles of instruments of death .. to create demand for new - and rake in dollar returns on their military investments .... if one really looks close see the horns sprouting ... doesn't the saying go 'The Devil's in the detail' ... the sting in the forked tail being their conquest of the heavens.

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