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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.

rshow55 - 03:56pm Jan 27, 2002 EST (#11090 of 11101)

We live in a dangerous world. I'm sorry that Russia has lost a minister. We need to work to make the world safer - - something many Russians of courage and good faith are working to do, along with many other people, of many other nations.

http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/regsys/maslow.html Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Written by: William G. Huitt especially this graphic.

lchic - 04:01pm Jan 27, 2002 EST (#11091 of 11101)

The smart way to 'think' regarding gaining information about possible terrorism - doesn't seem to be that of taking human rights from prisoners in Cuba. If the USA can't act in a civillized manner, then, the Arab speakers who could be helpful and want peace will fail to deliver their Terrorists from within. Powell seems to be right_tracking on this .... shame about the rest!

rshow55 - 04:01pm Jan 27, 2002 EST (#11092 of 11101)

Russian Deputy Minister and 13 Others Killed in Crash http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-russia-chechnya.html

lchic - 04:09pm Jan 27, 2002 EST (#11093 of 11101)

On the USA's failure to put real army men on the ground in Afghanistan - it seems the auto-fired weapons and bombs are said to have killed (substite murdered if you want) as many civillians as WTO. Noting this incentive, one can appreciate why the Afghan Gov is quickly getting into operational mode!

rshow55 - 04:21pm Jan 27, 2002 EST (#11094 of 11101)

We're in an amazingly strange posture -- claiming that we're willing to use nuclear weapons, in ways that would clearly cause huge American losses, in addition to other deaths -- yet shying away from the ordinary military risks professionals expect, and that we train for.

We let Ben Laden and his key supporters get away, by not committing ground troops, willing to actually stand up and shoot, in sufficient numbers, at a time when it plainly made sense to do so - by any reasonable military accounting.

So we killed unnecessarily - - and failed militarily on the key professed objective we had - - because of contradictory patterns and goals.

It was both an operational and a moral failure. We could have done better. And done so in ways that would have helped our political objectives.

The relation to missile defense may be pretty direct. Real defenses against missiles, and other threats, may very well have to include the use of infantry -- infantry willing to actually fire their weapons, not just serve as spotters.

lchic - 04:35pm Jan 27, 2002 EST (#11095 of 11101)

NYT Poll yesterday showed that the USA 'man in the street' felt disappointed that key Taliban players were still at liberty -- to continue ..

rshow55 - 05:06pm Jan 27, 2002 EST (#11096 of 11101)

We can afford to do clear accounting about ideas and facts. There are some costs, but on balance, they are small for us --- we really can't afford not to be honest with ourselves and others. . Wrong assumptions are expensive, they are dangerous, and they classify good answers out of existence.

Run, Osama, Run By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN _shows that people of the Islamic world are in denial. We make denial easier for them when we deny facts, distort ideas, and act in irrational or corrupt ways.

Minister Ivanov, today, asked a key question, and suggested some very good answers --

"Will Moscow and Washington seek ways to strengthen security together, or will each country take its own path, probably at the expense of the other's security?

Those facts should be checked, and shown, to a level of certainty and clarity that can stand beyond politics. So much is clear from the open literature that they can be.

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