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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 - 05:52pm May 10, 2002 EST (#2151 of 2157)

CLINTON - Terrorism Prevention

Former President Clinton says an anti-terrorism military invasion of Afghanistan during his administration might have been logistically impossible and would have drawn international condemnation.

In a National Public Radio interview aired Friday, Clinton said his White House did much to fight terrorism. Accomplishments included thwarting ``a lot more terrorist attacks than we had,'' Clinton said. Among them, he said, were convicting most of those responsible for acts of terror against Americans while he was president, getting al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden away from the network he was building in Sudan in 1996 and conducting airstrikes against bin Laden training camps in Afghanistan in 1998.

He acknowledged failures, such as being unable to persuade Saudi Arabia to take bin Laden into custody from Sudan and scrapping an operation to have CIA-trained Pakistanis hunt down the suspected terror mastermind in Afghanistan in 1999.

``I think the only thing (more) we could have done is to try some sort of invasion, which would have been widely condemned around the world as a violation of international law,'' said Clinton, a guest on NPR's ``The Tavis Smiley Show.''

Now, the outrage over the Sept. 11 terror attacks has led to widespread support for President Bush's war in Afghanistan, at home and abroad. For instance, Clinton noted the Bush administration has been given ``basing rights in adjoining countries'' to Afghanistan -- crucial to the military's successes.

In the Middle East, Clinton proposed Israel and the Palestinians make an interim agreement if they cannot reach an overall settlement. Clinton, who actively mediated between the two sides, said Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat made a mistake in not taking the peace agreement in late 2000.

He also said that although the idea of a new career as a television talk show host has some appeal, it is unlikely to be his next career turn. That's in part because it would be difficult for such a show to be economically viable, Clinton said.

``I don't think this is going to happen,'' he said of the speculation after he met with NBC executives last week. ``I'd be surprised if it did.''

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On the Net: Clinton on National Public Radio:
http://www.npr.org/programs/tavis/
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Clinton.html
AP

lchic - 06:00pm May 10, 2002 EST (#2152 of 2157)

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat made a mistake in not taking the peace agreement in late 2000. Clinton

Folks outside the US don't think Arafat made this mistake - so how come the USA can not think straight regarding MEast Peace and that border .... are you guys really going to find 10+billion dollars to build a wall - would need USA tax-payers to dig deep! $10+bn would be a fine contribution to an economy ... put the money in through the women - emancipate and give them business interests ... send the men to .. err .. ummm ... to ... 'Toastmasters' .. to learn to articulate, communicate and think straight!

lchic - 06:38pm May 10, 2002 EST (#2153 of 2157)

mAzza - true confession -
"I once ate a Baby" ..
before my doing so it wrote the following self-epitaph ...

'First bite, First Strike!
Off with my toes
Next the fine torso
Lastly my Nose
Last bite, last strike!'
^{dR2002
see
see also}

ti: Peace Babe!

rshow55 - 08:05pm May 10, 2002 EST (#2154 of 2157)

I'll be tomorrow getting a detailed response to gisterme's much appreciated MD2137-2138 gisterme 5/10/02 3:44am postings. I want to do justice to them. Gisterme raises really good, challenging questions related to infrastructure integration; transportation costs; location choices and challenges; sizing and spacing; staging and pacing of development; safety; environmental impact; and other things.

Gisterme mentions MD1959, and I suspect he read MD1958 rshow55 5/2/02 1:31pm which starts:

" Mazza, not everybody is as perfect, as graceful, and as balanced as you are. Still, people make progress, and sometimes there's hope. Even for folks who haven't joined "toastmasters".

and includes a fine advertorial:

. Hydrogen: promise and challenge http://www2.exxonmobil.com/files/corporate/020502.pdf

"Hydrogen vehicles may become an important part of our energy future if known problems can be overcome."

It also includes some postings which, after a day's work on the questions of MD2137-2138 gisterme 5/10/02 3:44am , I still feel comfortable about.

There's a LOT of solar energy

"1,750 Gb, the estimate of all the conventional oil that there ever was or ever will be, is less than the amount of sunlight that hits the earth in one 24 hour day." http://www.oilcrisis.com/debate/oilcalcs.htm

Maybe we can exploit that energy, economically, and reasonably soon. It wouldn't have to be "easy" to be worth doing. But it would have to be not just possible, but economic.

More tomorrow.

lchic - 09:30am May 11, 2002 EST (#2155 of 2157)

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