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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?

rshowalter - 11:14am Apr 23, 2001 EST (#2533 of 2535)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

The basic technical and human requirements for effective nuclear disarmament, or radically increased nuclear safety, are not beyond us. I set out a pattern that I still think might be workable, or a useful point of departure, on September 25, 2000
rshowalt 9/25/00 7:32am
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rshowalt 9/25/00 7:36am

rshowalter - 11:20am Apr 23, 2001 EST (#2534 of 2535)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

From 9:19 AM beckq 9/25/00 9:19am ... to ..... 5:03 pm of that day, I conversed extensively with a very well briefed person I believed then, and still believed, had a right to speak from direct experience about US policy at the highest levels:

beckq 9/25/00 5:03pm

"American foreign policy would work better if we could be clearer in our internal and external signals"

" "Quite true thats why America makes it quite clear and indicates that it will use nuclear weapons if it feels it needs to."

My responsese, which I know from context that he read, bear reading by people concerned with the safety, and sanity, of our nuclear policies:
rshowalt 9/25/00 5:15pm
rshowalt 9/25/00 5:17pm
rshowalt 9/25/00 5:28pm

rshowalter - 11:21am Apr 23, 2001 EST (#2535 of 2535)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Some of the human characteristics that make nuclear weapons especially ill controlled and dangerous were reviewed by Dawn Riley, with respect to the Milgram experiment, here: lunarchick 9/27/00 9:38pm

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