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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 - 08:51pm Apr 7, 2001 EST (#2084 of 2089)
lunarchick@www.com

Bush ForeignPolicy: .... tone is important in foreign policy, and the Chinese, Russians, even the Europeans, have all reacted sharply to what appears to be a more prominent "unilateralism" in Washington.

Unilateralism defined

This unilateralism is best defined as a conscious decision to put America first, even if there is a diplomatic price to be paid. .

lunarchick - 08:59pm Apr 7, 2001 EST (#2085 of 2089)
lunarchick@www.com

A question here, in an interlinked complex world, is

How does an American President (with little world experience/s) know how to put America first ...

inclusive policies (of other's), as in strategic alliance partnering may do more for the American Economy than a drift to isolationalism

lunarchick - 09:25pm Apr 7, 2001 EST (#2086 of 2089)
lunarchick@www.com

Cook has 65years of essaying about American Culture

rshowalter - 08:22am Apr 8, 2001 EST (#2087 of 2089)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

The United States has long been percieved with ambivalence by the outside world -- but without unilateralism, warily trusted. The reasons for the rest of the world to trust, or like, the United States are getting less.

The fact is that the US is now prepared to threaten all other countries, if they do not suit her, with first use of nuclear weapons. Recently George Bush personally threatened a Chinese leader in this way, apparently with no sense of wrong or shame. The US now maintains a

"we can do anything no one can stop us from doing -- we can bomb anybody, anytime"

The US is terribly concerned about the inconvenience of a few flyers, or the death of a few of its soldiers. But there seem to be no limits on the death it is willing to impose on others, if it can be done at no risk to the United States itself.

The "letter from America" by Alistair Cook cited above should be widely read by republicans, who think what Bush is doing is either decent or costless. They should think of who Alistair Cook is, and what he has said and done and represented in his long and distinguished life -- and mark his reaction. A cartoon of a very small, servile Bush taking dictation from oil and coal interests is pointedly referred to. A similar cartoon, with weapons makers substituted for oil and coal, could be substituted, too.

Under the leadership of Bush, the US is approaching an certain kind of "loneliness of power." -- That shameful loneliness is expressed in a fine short poem:

.....

Tyrannososaurus was a beast
that had no friends, to say the least.
It ruled the ancient out-of-doors,
and slaughtered other dinosuars

from TYRANNOSAURUS WAS A BEAST: Dinosaur Poems by Jack Prelustsky illustrated by Arnold Lobel .... a find book to buy for any kid, of any age, interested in either poetry of dinosaurs

If the United States has become the "tyrant lizard collossus of nations" it is a sad and shameful thing. Unfortunately, the term fits too well -- a tiny pea-brained president, with no apparent morals, except the morality of brute force, threatening, exploiting, and dissiplating the legitimacy and good will of the United States abroad with stunning speed.

Republicans should think of the quite practical consequences of what they are doing.

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