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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 - 01:05pm Sep 7, 2001 EST (#8602 of 8604)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

At gisterme's suggestion, I thought about what "evil" was, among leaders and states.

MD5037 rshowalter 6/13/01 9:17pm ... MD5038 lunarchick 6/13/01 9:17pm
MD5039 rshowalter 6/13/01 9:18pm ... MD5040 lunarchick 6/13/01 9:19pm
MD5041 rshowalter 6/13/01 9:19pm ...

the passage ends:

" I prefer Americans at their best, where they have many traits the whole world admires, with good reason.

rshowalter - 01:22pm Sep 7, 2001 EST (#8603 of 8604)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

In , MD8582 gisterme 9/7/01 2:38am . . . gisterme claims we owe our prosperity to the Cold War.

I think we're poorer for the Cold War, not richer.

If gisterme's making an argument that we should invest in unworkable junk, because there might be "spin-offs" that's a poor argument. We have better things to do with the money, and the skilled manpower that will otherwise be wasted on unworkable junk. We'll have an easier time hitting productive targets with care than by mistake.

As I recall, there's a good deal of data that undermines the claim that military expenditure can be justified, or even significantly justified, by spin-offs, when alternative costs are given any reasonable weight at all.

Did the government direction and constraint of cold war sometimes favor economic growth better than a freer, less constrained set of priorities would have done? Maybe in some cases. On balance, I'd argue strongly that it has been expensive.

But what's done is done.

The more important question is what now?

And now, things need to be reframed, because the old system closes off communication and good decision making in so many ways that things are going badly. Things need to be reframed.

MD8300 rshowalter 9/1/01 3:52pm ... MD8301 rshowalter 9/1/01 3:54pm

MD8500 rshowalter 9/5/01 4:04pm

rshowalter - 01:27pm Sep 7, 2001 EST (#8604 of 8604)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

About 2/3 of the way through his postings, almarst quit this forum, for reasons that are important to understand. Reasons that remain central now.

I'm glad he reconsidered, and has continued communication here.

Because full nuclear disarmament, and barriers to it, were being seriously discussed. And that discussion continues.

In shorthand, almarst's main argument against full nuclear disarmament is that " Americans act like Nazis . . " (the phrase is mine, not almarst's )

I think the point is absolutely central, and we should stop giving people reason to compare us to the Nazis.
MD8290 rshowalter 9/1/01 10:14am

There isn't anything on this thread more important than getting Americans to understand that this is a central problem.

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