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?
I think the people who are harassing us might fairly be said to
be on the "dark side" -- in terms of behavior that Dawn Riley and I
have dealt with at lenth in http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee7b085/0
Guardian Talk/ Issues Mankind's Inhumanity to Man and
Woman - As natural as human goodness?
*******
We need to learn to be more civilized than we are. A big step
would be to acknowledge what I'm now convinced is a fact -- that
"man's inhumanity to man" is as natural as breathing.
But shameful all the same.
rshowalter
- 05:31pm Apr 18, 2001 EST (#2374
of 2379) 
Robert Showalter
showalte@macc.wisc.edu
I believe that, when you look at the history of human warfare,
and especially the history of bombing -- and most especially the
history of nuclear terror -- it makes a great deal of sense to
acknowledge that people naturally, spontaneously, act monstrously to
people they regard, in some fundamental way, as "threatening"
outsiders.
rshowalter
- 05:34pm Apr 18, 2001 EST (#2375
of 2379)
Robert Showalter
showalte@macc.wisc.edu
And that whole institutions, the CIA among them, can become
monstrous, can become "people of the lie."
There are plenty of dark cases -- Russia had and has plenty of
examples.
Human beings can be horrific. And often are.
That includes Americans.
We need to learn enough about ourselves, and what cooperation
needs, to make the horrors less.
lunarchick
- 05:39pm Apr 18, 2001 EST (#2376
of 2379)
lunarchick@www.com
Colin Powell has a good world-press today in defence of his
leadership initiative re The Gaza Strip. When the leaders of
Palestine/Isreal don't have a leadership gene, then, it looks as if
Powell might well mediate to a resolve in that situation .. were he
to have an open check book to offer education to Palestinians so
that they and Isreal could grow brainpower to run the area with
technical competence and commerce .. he'd be well on the way to a
solution.
rshowalter
- 05:40pm Apr 18, 2001 EST (#2377
of 2379)
Robert Showalter
showalte@macc.wisc.edu
I think that lies, and diversions and deceptions that function as
lies, are perhaps tens or hundreds of times more common than most
people are willing to admit (within their own social groups, at
least).
Once the commonness of deception is seen, a great many
"insoluble problems" become much more soluble. The "insoluble
problems" have often been put there, in some individual or group's
interest, to prevent fairly obvious things from being seen.
For instance, Star Wars has been, from the beginning, a massive
fraud - technically, and for a long time, financial.
Much of the US military-industrial complex is now, and has been
for some time, based on false pretenses -- and a great deal of money
has been taken under these false pretenses.
And people are deep enough into it that they don't see a way out.
The way out is simple --- admit the lie, and permit reasonable
human accomodations to be made.
Every nation state needs a chance for a reasonable, secure
defense.
We don't need to go on manufacturing conflicts.
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