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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 - 08:24am Sep 11, 2001 EST (#8750 of 8755)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

And you wonder why GB has had such a problem with "a sense of community."

rshowalter - 08:25am Sep 11, 2001 EST (#8751 of 8755)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

With the world as complicated as it is, and people and nations as exposed, limited and vulnerable as they are, community is an essential part of security. It is the most flexible, most useful defense, most often, -- the thing that keeps the world, at most times and places, from being reduced to a Hobbesian "war of all against all."

Bush is working, and working hard, to keep Australia friendly. He has good reason to do so.

He should consider America's role in the community of nations - - and work to build aspects of defense that can only come from community.

To defend against horrors like this, without motivated friends, is practically impossible.

. Nuclear Booty: More Smugglers Use Asia Route by DOUGLAS FRANTZ http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/11/international/asia/11NUKE.html

With motivated friends - effective defenses are much more possible.

This is a fact -- this can be checked. The actions of the Bush administration have been enormously effective in distancing the United States from the rest of the world - - destroying the sense that the United States is "part of the community of nations" and that U.S. citizens are "part of the community of people of the world."

It is hard to imagine anything more clearly against the security interests of the United States of America.

But there is something that compares, also negative, that the Bush administration is also doing. It is degrading the value of both the word, and the "technical judgement" of the United States, by active bad faith on many assurances other nations have relied upon, and by showing a degree of technical dishonesty, and brazen disregard for fact, on things like missile defense, that is breathtaking. .

People are noticing, both inside the United States and outside. Things are polarizing, and there are new and very hopeful possibilities, as well as dangers. The United States, in its own interest, and for reasons of pride, is going to have to change some things.

So is the rest of the world, which is going to have to organize itself, in very many ways, to be independent of the control of the United States, and insofar as possible independent of actions on the part of the United States that require the US government to show either good faith or good sense. That is happening, more and more.

MD2087 rshowalter 4/8/01 8:22am ... MD3175 rshowalter 5/3/01 5:12pm
MD7315 rshowalter 7/23/01 7:24am ... MD7316 bilbobaggins0 7/23/01 7:28am
MD7318 rshowalter 7/23/01 8:55am ... MD7319 rshowalter 7/23/01 9:10am
MD7320 rshowalter 7/23/01 9:14am ...

Some forces of change are getting focused, and finding voice.

lunarchick - 08:26am Sep 11, 2001 EST (#8752 of 8755)
lunarchick@www.com

After beating Spassky during the cold war Fischer made a guest appearance on the Bob Hope show, played a private match with President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines and then vanished as sponsors lined up to make him rich.

He was stripped of his world title when he declined to defend it

rshowalter - 08:26am Sep 11, 2001 EST (#8753 of 8755)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

MD4156-4158 rshowalter 5/22/01 3:12pm

ScienceNewsPoetry365-367 rshowalter "Science News Poetry" 3/1/01 11:58am

And especially rshowalter "Science News Poetry" 3/1/01 2:07pm . . . which gives a sense of my motivation. I'm hoping, working as best I can, to make these dangers less, and to make hope a more practical thing.

MD819 rshowalter 3/2/01 8:16am . . . MD820 lunarchick 3/2/01 11:11pm
MD822 rshowalter 3/4/01 11:44am . . .

One can say that gisterme is trying to do so as well. The hundreds of postings by gisterme on this thread bear witness to that. But at the same time, gisterme acts on the basis of assumptions, contrary to fact, that classify hope out of existence - - that make things worse.

rshowalter - 08:30am Sep 11, 2001 EST (#8754 of 8755)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

MD2088-89 rshowalter 4/8/01 8:30am

much on "the culture of lying" -- especially problems with journalism -- and concerns by almarst.

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