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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?

lunarchick - 04:43pm Mar 14, 2001 EST (#991 of 995)
lunarchick@www.com

The USA overtly claims to be the world's premier democracy.

If so, then why doesn't it set up investigative panels that have carte blanc authority to rake the coals and look at the above issues - honestly ?

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I was interested to note that Laxman of India, a politician was eager to receive and talk with 'arms dealers' .. from them he took a 4000 dollar 'gift'. The dealers were actually guys from a web site who recorded this session and put it out on their web site.

Laxman initially said he'd taken the money for 'the party funds', but, was later forced to resign.

The issue of transparency in business dealings is one that concerns www.transparency.de many people. This German site ranks countries as related to perceived honesty. The USA does not head the list .. why not so?

lunarchick - 04:44pm Mar 14, 2001 EST (#992 of 995)
lunarchick@www.com

http://www.transparency.de/

rshowalter - 04:45pm Mar 14, 2001 EST (#993 of 995)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

rshowalter 3/12/01 2:17pm makes more sense, the more important getting to the truth is as a practical challenge.

It seems that nobody has anwers to our most basic questions about nuclear weapons, then the world needs them.

We need to

- Establish FACTS beyond reasonable doubt - and explain these facts very broadly.

and

- Craft a fully workable, fully complete, fully explained "draft treaty proposal" for nuclear disarmament and a more militarily stable world.

Such drafting would, at the least, make for stunningly good journalism -- that could be widely syndicated among papers. Useful as that would be, I think the drafting would serve a much more useful purpose. That purpose would be actually getting the points that need to be worked out for nuclear disarmament set out coherently - - to a level where closure actually occurs. That would involve a great deal of staff work done coherently, quickly, and in coordinated fashion.

I think a lot of this could be done IN PUBLIC --- say if some Moscow Times staff, and people from a couple of US papers, some Guardian staff, and people from some interested governments, started an OPEN dialog together.

OPENNESS would be a new approach - and with the internet technology, it is possible as never before. We might find that the forces of darkness and ignorance would have a hard time standing against it. We might, as a practical matter, come up with enough truth to make the world much safer and more prosperous.

rshowalter - 04:52pm Mar 14, 2001 EST (#994 of 995)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Lunarchic , you're right, and perhaps Tranparency International could be involved in moving in that direction.

The mechanics of hiding lies is getting much harder with the internet -- maybe we should take advantage of it.

Because lies (and psychological warfare based on lies) are terribly destructive.

From a distance, it seems amazing, with human capabilities as they are, that the world should so often be so ugly.

Perhaps with more transparency, which is now technically possible, we could make the world distinctly more beautiful.

rshowalter - 05:17pm Mar 14, 2001 EST (#995 of 995)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

In rshowalter 3/9/01 12:21pm I set out some links to Guardian threads where I've argued, with Dawn Riley, for way of getting at truth.

We've argued that truth, in the sense of checkable fact, can very often sort out human problems, both intellectual and emotional.

The ability of people to mislead themselves, and the reasons why questions of fact need to be morally forcing are set out in

- Paradigm Shift .... whose getting there? http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee7726f/0

The terrible costs of lies, and the importance of lies as psychological warfare are discussed, from a literary and historical perspective in

. Psychwarfare, Casablanca -- and terror http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee7a163/0

I was invited by the Guardian to moderate a thread that they featured in their Mideast Special page for many months, which emphasizes the important of truth in peacemaking.

. Emotional Peace in the Middle East http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee795fc/0

I believe that thread shows that, unless lies can be rooted out, peace under complicated circumstances is impossible.

Dawn is especially interested in evolutionary psychology, and inspired by that, we did

. Mankind's Inhumanity to Man and Woman - As natural as human goodness? http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee7b085/0

From a distance, it seems amazing, with human capabilities as they are, that the world should so often be so ugly.

Perhaps with more transparency, which is now technically possible, we could make the world distinctly more beautiful.

We ought at least to be able to do the most compelling things --

get nuclear weapons under a level of control consistent with survival,

and

find ways to get rid of the lies that are so often necessary, on at least one side and often on both, to make war and gross human exploitation and ignorance possible.

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