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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.

almarst2002 - 07:48pm Jun 11, 2002 EST (#2484 of 2493)

THE $$$$$ LINE - Jackpot Afghanistan - http://www.blueprint-magazine.de/oil/oil.html

almarst2002 - 07:52pm Jun 11, 2002 EST (#2485 of 2493)

Dick Cheney, who spent much of the last decade scheming with his fellow oil barons to get a pipeline from the virgin fields of the Caspian Sea -- where $4 trillion in profits are waiting for them -- through Afghanistan and Pakistan to the Indian Ocean. Cheney's business interests in oil and arms, temporarily divested while he helps direct American policy in energy and defense, rival those of the Bushes and bin Ladens. Or as the Chicago Tribune noted last year: 'War is big business, and Dick Cheney is right in the middle of it.'" - http://www.bushwatch.net/oil.htm

almarst2002 - 07:59pm Jun 11, 2002 EST (#2486 of 2493)

"One of the most fascinating pipeline proposals is advocated by Unocal. In conjunction with the government of Turkmenistan and a Saudi Arabian oil company, Delta Oil, Unocal is proposing to build a pipeline from Charjou, Turkmenistan, through Afghanistan to Karachi, Pakistan." - http://depts.washington.edu/reecas/newsletter/spring97/lumpkin.htm

mazza9 - 10:10pm Jun 11, 2002 EST (#2487 of 2493)
Louis Mazza

Almarst2002:

I see that the forum topic dosen't prevent your blah blah!

lchic and Robert have been blocked. Who knows, maybe you'll be sent to the corner with a dunce cap again.

LouMazza

almarst2002 - 10:46pm Jun 11, 2002 EST (#2488 of 2493)

THE EMPIRE ISN'T IN AFGHANISTAN FOR THE OIL! - http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/jared/oil-1.htm

almarst2002 - 10:49pm Jun 11, 2002 EST (#2489 of 2493)

Hello! Hello! Hello!

Is anyone there? Is anyone there? Is anyone there?

Is that an echo echo echo? (MAZZA;)

... echo echo echo echo echo echo echo echo ...;)

lchic - 05:41am Jun 12, 2002 EST (#2490 of 2493)

""" ... The more sophisticated of President Vladimir Putin's advisers seem now to accept the need for most of the Russian troops in Chechnya to be withdrawn, leaving local police officers to take more responsibility for security in the republic. But there are strong signs that Russian commanders from the defence and interior ministries are undermining that proposal; and there is a nasty suspicion that their motives are financial. War in the Caucasus provides ample opportunity for greedy soldiers to make money through oil and drug deals, as well as extortion from local people desperate to pay ransom to secure the freedom of loved ones.

http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=1165559

lchic - 07:09am Jun 12, 2002 EST (#2491 of 2493)

""" ... Umarov and hundreds of thousands of other Krasnodar residents displaced by the breakup of the Soviet empire a decade ago face the threat of deportation, even if they have nowhere else to go. Like Umarov, most of them are dark-skinned non-Russians.

"It's the 21st century, and they want to deport people on the basis of ethnicity," said Sarvar Tedorov, leader of a Turkish human rights group here. "They are persecuting us so we will be forced to leave."

The town of Varenikovskaya, home to about 500 Turks among a population of 16,000, has become an unhappy flash point in the increasingly acute ethnic tensions erupting around Russia ... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34652-2002Jun11.html

lchic - 07:37am Jun 12, 2002 EST (#2492 of 2493)

Macro-Philanthropy

http://www.kuringgai.net/corporate_philanthropy.htm
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&q=philanthropy+macro+philanthropy&btnG=Google+Search

rshow55 - 02:11pm Jun 12, 2002 EST (#2493 of 2493)

Back from a reunion at Cornell University, and some interesting meetings. Tiring for me, but also in some ways VERY satisfying. Some things seem hopeful to me - very hopeful - but it is a time of changes, and a lot of need for care. Almarst, I'm very glad to see you back.

I'm personally glad that interdiction is being seriously considered - it can work, and missiles really can't. I'd be glad for a chance to say a few things to responsible folks about interdiction - and connected things needed to keep things stable if interdiction has to happen -- might even be possible to do that on a face-to-face basis - seems to me.

I very much LIKED the WEEK IN REVIEW section this Sunday. And I ran across some folks aroun Ithaca who seemed aware of this thread.

For all the anger and fear and challenges, it seems to me a good time to repost these:
MD1999 rshow55 5/4/02 10:35am ... MD2000 rshow55 5/4/02 10:39am
MD2001 rshow55 5/4/02 11:36am

Seems a good time to be careful, hopeful, and fearful enough so we arrange things well, rather than badly. I deeply appreciate the chance to post on this thread. Back in a while.

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