![[F]](../_images/site.gif) New York Times on the Web Forums  Science
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?
    (8826 previous messages)
rshowalter
- 09:08am Sep 12, 2001 EST (#8827
of 8869) 
Robert Showalter
showalte@macc.wisc.edu
It seems to me, still today, where so much of human concern, and
human hatred is on view, that the concerns in Mankind's
Inhumanity to Man and Woman - As natural as human goodness? 1-3
, http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee7b085/0
make sense.
We need to be able to think about our enemies as people --
either to defeat them, or to make the people who support them less
likely to remain active enemies. To do this, we have to be able
to understand how they think -- and how they feel.
The terrorists who did so much damage yesterday did something
that was, to them, a beautiful thing.
. Detail, and the Golden Rule 16-19 http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee8b441/15
By my standards, and I believe the standards of most people in
the world, what they did was wrenchingly ugly . But it is
worth seeing that on the basis of their assumptions, and their
beliefs , what they did was heroic, and beautiful -- something
they willingly gave their lives for.
We need to find ways to adress, and change, the bases of those
assumptions. Which may require that we understand, communicate,
and perhaps modify some of our own.
There are plenty of things about our society, and its connection
to other societies, that need to be thought through more carefully.
Almarst , Dawn Riley, and I have been involved in extensive
discussions of these, involving both journalism and the performance
of intelligence agencies. MD8754 rshowalter
9/11/01 8:30am
wrcooper
- 10:20am Sep 12, 2001 EST (#8828
of 8869)
Yesterday's attacks point up the wrongheadedness of Bush's NMD
plan. Terrorist groups or rogue nations won't use nuclear-tipped
ICBMs to strike at the U.S. They'll use what one commentator called
"low-tech, high concept" weapons, such as commandeered commercial
airliners loaded with jet fuel to kill Americans. If they obtain
nukes, they'll carry them on their backs and land on our shores in
the dead of night on a remote beach; they won't launchan easily
trackable missile from their homeland, inviting retaliation. These
horrifying events show the madness and futility of bush's plan.
rshowalter
- 11:51am Sep 12, 2001 EST (#8829
of 8869)
Robert Showalter
showalte@macc.wisc.edu
I made some references to this Missile Defense forum on
some Guardian Talk threads, including this one in
Psychwarfare, Casablanca -- and terror http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee7a163/237
logician3
- 12:03pm Sep 12, 2001 EST (#8830
of 8869)
Bush is an idiot.
wrcooper
9/12/01 10:20am
Quite true, only a large country with a significant nuclear
presence could hope to have any success in a traditional nuclear
strike scenario - "rogue" states just don't have the wherewithall to
pull something like that off.
Nontraditional modes of delivery, however, could be tried by a
rogue state.
fructidor_18
- 12:03pm Sep 12, 2001 EST (#8831
of 8869)
``The cause of the Arab people… has never been worse
served than by terrorism against civilians, now practiced
systematically by Arab movements. Terrorism delays, perhaps
irremediably, the solution of justice that will eventually come''.
–Albert Camus, circa 1950s
DISASTER RELIEF LINKS
BLOOD
DONATION CENTERS
EMERGENCY
INFORMATION HOTLINE
THE AMERICAN RED CROSS
Donors who wish to give blood in the coming days to replenish
the nation's blood supply are encouraged to call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE.
American
Tragedy - Find out how you can help the victims.
America
Under Attack--GOVERNMENT
GUIDE
gisterme
- 01:48pm Sep 12, 2001 EST (#8832
of 8869)
logician3 wrote (WRT the possibility of a terrorist
nuclear missile attack, logician3
9/12/01 12:03pm ): Quite true, only a large country with a
significant nuclear presence could hope to have any success in a
traditional nuclear strike scenario - "rogue" states just don't have
the wherewithall to pull something like that off.
Those sound like famous last words, logician3. Before
yesterday, few thought a horror like the one we witnessed was
possible either. That attack scenario is now used-up. It's obvious
that these folks are attacking as much for symbolic impact as to do
real damage...and few things evoke greater symobolic visions of
grandure than nuclear missiles. They were the Cold War phallic
symbols of the superpowers. What these animals don't seem to
comprehend is that, like Pearl Harbor, the WTC murders will be the
symbol that focuses the entire western world against their cause and
leads to their ultimate destruction.
No amount of negotiating or "understanding", as Robert puts it,
would have prevented yesterday's tragedy. These mass-murderers are
no more interested in those things than Hitler was. They want to
kill Jews just like Hitler did. Same spirit. They hate the US
because it has prevented them from doing that. It's as simple as
that. They are not rational...and in an irrational enviornment,
conventional wisdom does not apply.
  (37
following messages)
  
New York Times on the Web Forums Science
Missile Defense
| 
