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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 - 12:04pm Sep 14, 2001 EST (#9041 of 9051)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Good point. But a great deal is, as almarst has memorably said, "interdependent." More on that word, as almarst has used it, later.

We have to be careful about the assumptions we make, and that remains true if we are implacably at war -- That's not just important to have a war that can have a workable end. It is still true, just to conduct the war itself "efficiently."

MD6422 rshowalter 7/2/01 5:44pm MD6751 rshowalter 7/7/01 8:49pm

To hit the target, however it is shaped, you have to know where the target is.

( If that target is an organization, one needs some insight about what it knows, and can do, and how it thinks.) . . . .

I recall an old ad, circa maybe 1890, that advertised a Whiskey made by " honest North Carolina people -- who wouldn't dilute their whiskey, even if they knew how."

My people, who are from North Carolina, always smiled at that old ad.

If you're worrying about the odds of missile defense, and about other issues of defense, assumptions like the one in that ad aren't so funny.

And assumptions that dehumanize and diminsh our enemies in unrealistic ways aren't useful, either.

rshowalter - 12:18pm Sep 14, 2001 EST (#9042 of 9051)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Direct response to gisterme's request for some specific examples. I think gisterme should have dealt with this, rather than evade it, and misquote it, as she did.

"I think this stuff, which deals with the idea of lasar weapons as "long distance death rays" is right as far as it goes. Which is pretty far . ..

MD6410 rshowalter 7/2/01 4:35pm ... MD6411 rshowalter 7/2/01 4:42pm
MD6413 rshowalter 7/2/01 4:53pm ... MD6414 rshowalter 7/2/01 4:56pm
MD6415 rshowalter 7/2/01 5:05pm ... MD6416 rshowalter 7/2/01 5:15pm
MD6418 rshowalter 7/2/01 5:26pm ...

MD6420 rshowalter 7/2/01 5:34pm ... MD6422 rshowalter 7/2/01 5:44pm
MD6423 rshowalter 7/2/01 5:46pm ...

The postings above still seem right to me, and right on,

MD7139-41 rshowalter 7/17/01 5:24pm

If missile defense is serious , and if plans for space weaponry are serious , then these are serious issues.

The issues have been evaded, and when answered, misquoted in ways that cannot, so far as I could see have been "honest mistakes."

In my view, the national interest is served by right answers here.

rshowalter - 12:29pm Sep 14, 2001 EST (#9043 of 9051)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Many issues covered by The Coyle Report , and in the writings of Theodore Postol and others, ought to be adressed in detail as well.

I've not been able to see how "missile defense" could be anything but a shuck, a fraud, a boondoggle, given the density of the defects in it, and the corruption indictated by evasion of checking on these issues, at many levels.

Dealing with gisterme , who has done some useful work in communication with almarst , I've been amazed at the absence of answers.

Some New York Times columnists, and the editors, who may not ever look at this board, but who do consider evidence, have expressed similar concerns.

At a time where we've been shocked into taking military matters much more seriously, these points should be considered -- in the national interest.

almarst-2001 - 01:08pm Sep 14, 2001 EST (#9044 of 9051)

Just a couple of points:

1. It is interesting to watch the 180 degrees change in the attitude of so many Americans and particularely its leadership and the media when considering the response to terror once it hits the US. Remember the Bosnia, the Kosovo, the Chechnia, the Macedonia, even the Israel?

2. Today, as througout the all those years of Chechen conflict, the Chechens are free to move and establish businesses in Russia proper. Some very lucrative are located just under the Kremlin wall.

3. Whatever this administration does, it should not make the things worth. The widespread hysterical madness and mindless of initial reaction which mostly resembels the declaration of a "Holly War" in "defence of our values" is a serious cause for concern.

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