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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.

rshowalter - 04:23pm Mar 21, 2001 EST (#1270 of 11890)
Robert Showalter mrshowalter@thedawn.com

I don't see how it CAN look any uglier to you than it does to me already.

And I'm angry about it, in some detailed, focused ways. And I think when you understand, in more detail, what has happened, you may be more tolerant in some ways, but less in others.

But the people in charge of making the horror continue, the people who profit from it in America, are a tiny minority -- even a small minority among our wealthy.

For 99.6-99.8% of the American population, and for ALL the rest of the world, a more sane American military policy would be tremendously beneficial.

The persuasion job isn't insurmountable, and this time, if a decent umpiring mechanism is in place so that facts can be established, the facts are, on balance, very strongly on the side of peace.

But it will take staff work --- maybe a hundred people, working hard, for a short time, with communication all over the world. If everybody BUT the United States was for this, the US population would be very persuadable indeed.

And if there WERE good reasons for nuclear weapons, of for missile defense rather than removal of the nuclear threat -- perhaps we could hear about it.

almarst-2001 - 04:24pm Mar 21, 2001 EST (#1271 of 11890)

rshowalter 3/21/01 4:11pm

I don't hold it against Americans either. I have a deep respect for religion, but not as a "comforter". On the contrary, religion could be seen to emphasise pittiness of our anger, fear and misdeeds in the face of limitless time and space. We are the small grain of sand in this universe. And may disappear without anyone would notice, or remember. On THEIR SCALE.

almarst-2001 - 04:27pm Mar 21, 2001 EST (#1272 of 11890)

Robert,

It was a very interesting conversation.

But I have to leave it for now.

Hope to continue.

Alex.

rshowalter - 04:32pm Mar 21, 2001 EST (#1273 of 11890)
Robert Showalter mrshowalter@thedawn.com

Don't let America off the hook completely -- we have responsibilities, and for the world to go on decently, the history of what happened is going to have to be clear. We need a redemptive solution here -- one that permits people to go on without being paralyzed by lies.

I believe that we could make great progress here -- and that a very great many members of the United States military forces, and many American elected representatives, and many other people, too, would want to help.

But some FACTS have to be established. And that's going to take some staff work.

almarst-2001 - 07:41pm Mar 21, 2001 EST (#1274 of 11890)

What do you think of the following:

http://www.rockfordinstitute.org/NewsST121500.htm

THE WOLFOWITZ FACTOR

The leading light in Bush’s foreign policy team, Paul Wolfowitz, heads the Paul Nitze Center for International Studies. He epitomizes the "neoconservative" wing of the Republican Party. The neocons, many of them former leftists, are inveterate Cold Warriors in search of a new enemy. They are latently Russophobic, but currently also fixated on the supposed threat from China.

Wolfowitz came to national prominence in early 1992 as the author a secret Pentagon memorandum that was leaked to the New York Times. That document unreservedly named Yeltsin’s post-communist Russia as the gravest potential threat to American vital interests. It advocated an all-out, U.S.-led NATO war against Russia if Moscow threatened the security of newly-independent Baltic republics. Wolfowitz called for 24 NATO divisions, 70 fighter squadrons, and six aircraft carrier battle groups to be prepared to keep the Russian Navy "bottled up in the eastern Baltic," to bomb supply lines in Russia, and to use armored formations to expel Russian forces if they entered Lithuania. He boldly stated that Russia would be unlikely to respond with nuclear weapons, but he provided no basis for that assessment.

In addition the Wolfowitz memorandum envisioned provision of American security guarantees to Eastern Europe and permanent global involvement in order to deter "potential competitors from even aspiring to a larger regional or global role."

Instead of being taken to a safe, quiet place where he can do no harm to himself or to others, Wolfowitz became the neoconservative hero. His proposals on Eastern Europe were accepted by the Clinton Administration and resulted in the expansion of NATO in 1997. What is best for America and the world — his disciples have been telling us ever since - is that America should remain the only cop in town, possessed of the sole right to deputize posses, or go it alone to discipline evil-doers, wherever American "values" or "security interests" are threatened. The bipartisan hegemonists also accept Wolfowitz’s key tenet that America should never permit any nation, and especially Russia or China, to rise to the status of regional superpower.

almarst-2001 - 07:53pm Mar 21, 2001 EST (#1275 of 11890)

U.S. Expels Russian 'Spies' - http://www.cbsnews.com/now/story/0,1597,280618-412,00.shtml

Powell Orders Nearly 50 Suspected Spies To Leave Follows Arrest Of FBI Agent On Charges Of Espionage For Russia Unclear If Moscow Will Expel Americans In Retaliation ...

Taken in a context with the rest of recent international developments it seems like US has clearly taken course to the new Cold War.

lunarchick - 08:31pm Mar 21, 2001 EST (#1276 of 11890)
lunarchick@www.com

http://www.antiwar.com/

PW links: http://www.sais-jhu.edu/faculty/profiles/wolfowitz.html http://www.house.gov/financialservices/ http://www.antiwar.com/justin/pf/p-j082300.html

Note a newsflash re USA downsizing selected foreign workers.

On how DO countries think. With the USA does their dominance economically turn them into Empirial thinkers ... where they want to weaken other who may challenge their wealth. A solution for minnows and former greats is just to pay attention to building strong democratic nations with a quality economy.

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