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Missile Defense

Technology has always found its greatest consumer in a nation's war and defense efforts. Since the last attempts at a "Star Wars" defense system, has technology changed considerably enough to make the latest Missile Defense initiatives more successful? Can such an application of science be successful? Is a militarized space inevitable, necessary or impossible?

Read Debates, a new Web-only feature culled from Readers' Opinions, published every Thursday.

lchic - 03:27pm Apr 21, 2002 EST (#1607 of 1633)
USA - Missiles - Transparency --- really?!! NO! Not really.

^{Noticed that that NUKE ME State is trying to stop good experienced people from asking questions ... Mary ROBINSON etc ...}

Also note that American people including American-Arabs xPalestine have to work hard to provide Israel with $10million per day(JimmyCarterNYT) ... didn't i say above that Israel has NO sense of the VALUE of money .. if just falls from the pockest of 'out of their trees' US gift-givers!

mAzzA's word of the day http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=eschew

mAzzA - don't know if you've go ' 'Roos loose in the top padock' or what ... time wise it's not yet daylight/DAWN in my world zone !

Glad you liked the Cassey links RS - looks as if they guy missed 'retirement call' ... people hang in when they don't want others to 'check'!

rshow55 - 03:28pm Apr 21, 2002 EST (#1608 of 1633)

MD1595 mazza9 4/21/02 2:23pm asks an excellent, much appreciated question --

"RShow55:

" For the sake of discussion, (notice that I eschew the use of the word "argument"), "What benefits would accrue if the Missile Defense Programs were eliminated?

"LouMazza

I'll be working hard to answer that question now, in more detail than in MD1596 rshow55 4/21/02 3:01pm .

rshow55 - 03:31pm Apr 21, 2002 EST (#1609 of 1633)

lchic 4/21/02 3:27pm - - whatever else can be said, the Israelis know the value of money, and have used their aid money efficiently in military terms (though, according to Jimmy Carter today, in violation of their agreements.) I've known some Israelis who are very effective people.

mazza9 - 04:20pm Apr 21, 2002 EST (#1610 of 1633)
Louis Mazza

RShow55:

I appreicate the reposts. Excuse me if I observe that in some respects they are naive. There isn't a military person who would rather not have to exercise their skills. But as you point out, many military leaders like Alexander seek conquest not "civil society". Alexander, Hitler, Saddam, Pol Pot, et al are examples.

Many of us left the military after Viet Nam because of the misuse of the military by the polical leaders. Imagine if the money spent on that fools errand had been spent in giving developemental aid instead. Of course, the policatl dynamic was still there and one side saw the military as the only solution since they eschewed the ballot box!

There are 1 Billion Muslims, (when did they stop being Moslems?) and they frighten me because they have telegraphed, (or air mailed!!WTC), their intentions. I read on a church billboard that "Hate does not combat hate". How many millenia must the Jews turn the other cheek.

Ain't easy times.

LouMazza

mazza9 - 04:54pm Apr 21, 2002 EST (#1611 of 1633)
Louis Mazza

RSHow55:

Here's what I proposed at the Space Exploration forum which, I believe, fills the bill for alternative spending plans if we could disarm and adopt civilized means of maturing as a species. Mega Ifs, (if you ask me)!

"Mazza9 - 04:48pm Apr 21, 2002 EST (#6900 of 6900) Louis Mazza to Applez101:

My mission statement, "Move ALL heavy industry off-planet by 2050." If resource depletion and global warming are real concerns then I can think of no higher priority task. By 2050 the population will have doubled with most of the growth in the under developed countries. What is the cost of moving the world's population to another class M solar system with an appropriate new home planet. Moving heavy industry off-planet is a cheaper alternative.

I not only think outside the box but outside the planet!

LouMazza

lchic - 07:28pm Apr 21, 2002 EST (#1612 of 1633)
USA - Missiles - Transparency --- really?!! NO! Not really.

Not knowing the value of money .. used wrt those who 'trash' property that has taken years of toil to establish .. and even more to re-establish ... also 'trash' lives.

France it seems has a choice of two Presidential-candidates, one far right, the other right and a liar. FarRight equates with a 'backwardness direction in ideas and politics', so why would France at this time be looking to move back in time with poor leadership?

Israeli leader - wasn't this guy wanted as a war crim from 20years ago, but protected as leader of a culture that mistakes itself for a nation. If the paper work that made it a nation (1948) were reviewed and that area regrouped in a new progressive format, then the guy would be available to answer for the war crimes from 2 decades past along with current war crimes. So what gets into this heavily subsidised culture that their sole desire is to beat-up, kill, and trash their near neighbour?

One has noted that failure regarding 'Duty of Care' is looming large in the world media.

rshow55 - 07:40pm Apr 21, 2002 EST (#1613 of 1633)

Saw an interesting movie on video last night - Dead Man Walking . . starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn

It depicted, pretty realistically, I'd guess, the execution of a murderer whose act was as blameworthy as murder usually gets.

What a wrench, when people got close - - to actually see and participate in the death. How much agony, and self deception, and pain, human death causes - - even in this case, where death would seem as "justified" as it ever can be.

In military circumstances, people are grossly insensitive to the reality of human loss.

We surely need to pay more attention to our "duty to care."

We also need to learn the details of actual human behavior, including our own, that would make caring, as a practical matter, more possible and much more safe for all concerned.

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