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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.

almarst-2001 - 09:09pm Feb 19, 2002 EST (#11642 of 11662)

Pentagon Propaganda Plan Is Undemocratic, Possibly Illegal - http://www.fair.org/activism/osi-propaganda.html

The New York Times reported today that the Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Influence is “developing plans to provide news items, possibly even false ones, to foreign media organizations” in an effort “to influence public sentiment and policy makers in both friendly and unfriendly countries.”

The OSI was created shortly after September 11 to publicize the U.S. government’s perspective in Islamic countries and to generate support for the U.S.’s “war on terror.” This latest announcement raises grave concerns that far from being an honest effort to explain U.S. policy, the OSI may be a profoundly undemocratic program devoted to spreading disinformation and misleading the public, both at home and abroad. At the same time, involving reporters in Pentagon disinformation puts the lives of working journalists at risk.

Despite the OSI’s multi-million-dollar budget and its mandate to propagandize throughout the Middle East, Asia and Western Europe, “even many senior Pentagon officials and Congressional military aides say they know almost nothing about its purpose and plans,” according to the Times. The Times reported that the OSI’s latest announcement has generated opposition within the Pentagon among those who fear that it will undermine the Defense Department’s credibility.

Tarnished credibility may be the least of the problems created by the OSI’s new plan to manipulate media-the plan may compromise the free flow of information that democracy relies on. The government is barred by law from propagandizing within the U.S., but the OSI’s new plan will likely lead to disinformation planted in a foreign news report being picked up by U.S. news outlets. The war in Afghanistan has shown that the 24-hour news cycle, combined with cuts in the foreign news budgets across the U.S., make overseas outlets like Al-Jazeera and Reuters key resources for U.S. reporters.

Any “accidental” propaganda fallout from the OSI’s efforts is troubling enough, but given the U.S. government’s track record on domestic propaganda, U.S. media should be pushing especially hard for more information about the operation’s other, intentional policies.

According to the New York Times, “one of the military units assigned to carry out the policies of the Office of Strategic Influence” is the U.S. Army’s Psychological Operations Command (PSYOPS). The Times doesn’t mention, however, that PSYOPS has been accused of operating domestically as recently as the Kosovo war.

almarst-2001 - 09:19pm Feb 19, 2002 EST (#11643 of 11662)

Letter from Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Having thrown away the United Nations and trampled its Charter under foot, NATO has proclaimed before the world for the coming century an old law, that of the jungle: the strongest is always right. If your high technology permits it, surpass a hundred times in violence the adversary you condemn. And it is in this world that you invite us to live henceforth.

Under the eyes of humanity they are destroying a magnificent European country, and the civilized governments applaud it.

When the people [of Serbia] in despair leave their shelters and make human chains, at the risk of their lives, to save the bridges over the Danube, does this not rank with the high heroics of antiquity? I do not see what could stop Clinton, Blair, and Solana from exterminating them by fire Danube, does this not rank with the high heroics of antiquity? I do not see what could stop Clinton, Blair, and Solana from exterminating them by fire and water to the last man.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Moscow, 8 April 1999

almarst-2001 - 09:48pm Feb 19, 2002 EST (#11644 of 11662)

British marines invade Spain by mistake - http://news.independent.co.uk/world/europe/story.jsp?story=134192

By Kim Sengupta 19 February 2002 After its military successes in Kosovo, Sierra Leone and Afghanistan, Britain tried on Sunday to end the continuing row over Gibraltar by invading Spain.

That, at least, is what it may have looked like to the inhabitants of the Spanish town of La Linea de la Concepcion when they saw waves of Royal Marines hit the beach wielding mortar launchers and SA80 assault rifles. Sunbathers sat up startled, fishermen gawped and children ran to their mothers as the men of 45 Commando took up battle stations. It was then that they were approached by a policeman asking: "Excuse me, Inglese, but which country do you think you are in?"

Having realised they were not in Gibraltar, the marines packed up their weapons and climbed back into their landing craft, muttering apologies, to go further south.

The marines, based at Condor Barracks, near Arbroath in Scotland, were taking part in an exercise while sailing to the Gulf on the helicopter carrier, HMS Ocean. The wrong landing, a corporal pointed out, was due to "one of the most dangerous things in the world – an officer with a map".

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: "We were not trying to take Spain and have no plans to do so.

What if some day they press a wrong button;)

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