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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?

michstate1 - 11:26am May 2, 2001 EST (#2980 of 2996)

Missile Defense will never work. There are so many different ways that nations can annihilate one another that make the shield concept invalid, excessively expensive, and essential ineffectual.

The real issue is FEAR AND HATRED of others that national leaders use to justify potentially ANNIHILATING other peoples or even their own nation. We must STOP the race to destroy MANKIND.

The only defense system that will work is a HUMAN defense system -- one that values human life and is willing to work for reconciliation, forgiveness, peace, and cooperation, rather that fear, hatred, and justification of ways to KILL. I pray that all peoples choose peace.

Of course, this is much more difficult to achieve and not an easy fix. Politicans prefer easy fixes to placate others or make themselved "look" good or falsely "strong". The work I recommend is much more difficult. It requires great courage, great commitment, great leadership, and the willingness to pray and ask for divine intervention for the problems that face us all together globally -- regardless of our race, religion, nationality, or gender. We all matter -- we need leadership that values all human life.

rajten - 11:26am May 2, 2001 EST (#2981 of 2996)

I just read The New York Times on the Web, Wednesday, May 2, 2001, article entitled "In Strategy Overhaul, Bush Seeks a Missile Shield" by DAVID E. SANGER and STEVEN LEE MYERS.

On the right-hand side, authors list part of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty that was entered with the Soviet Union. I was wondering (and will check back here briefly if I can remember how)....Didn't the US already venture into some Star Wars kind of space unit that would knock out some kinds of land-based missiles when launched into the atmosphere, in attempts to defend the USA?

And if this was just planned or if it was actually implemented, then wouldn't it mean that the ABM Treaty of '72 has already been violated? Maybe I am missing the larger point in this particular issue, but what is to stop the president from making and approving any of his intentions for defending the country in such a hasty manner with the additional use and development of violent weapons?

applez0 - 11:41am May 2, 2001 EST (#2982 of 2996)

Rajten - As far as has been publically acknowledged, the Star Wars SDI experiments never extended to field trials in space...most never left the lab (interception & ID software, for example).

fgreenfield0 - 11:47am May 2, 2001 EST (#2983 of 2996)

Where are these "shot down" missiles going to land if not on Canadian soil. Guess it doesn't matter if you kill some of your friends as long as you protect the USA. Real good thinking Mr. Bush. America is definitely in danger of becoming the world's bully. How long does anyone think that other nations will tolerate this kind of thinking and start building their own missile defence. To use the term "rogue countries" is just one more way of forcing other countries to re-build their armaments. Does anyone serious think that a country like China or India etc is going to back down in the face of this kind of irresponsible confrontation. Not likely. It used to be the "Russians are coming, the Russians are coming...no doubt it will be re-worded to "the Chinese are coming, the chinese are coming.

rshowalter - 11:48am May 2, 2001 EST (#2984 of 2996)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Good question, but it is worth remembering that what is happening may make things safer , right now, and in the future, even if, as I believe, and almost everybody else on this thread also seems to believe, the missile defense technology will be no good at all.

Neither China, nor Russia, nor anybody else are going to be threatened by a US missile defense, in any near future, and is is SO easy to defeat anything that is even remotely feasible, that nation states will have plenty of time to neutralize anything and everything "Star Wars" can do. So it is a waste, and a terrible waste, but not a threat.

But the perception may be very, very productive. Because we are now paying attention to matters of nuclear peril -- issues that we ought to have been paying attention to all along.

If we think at all carefully (and if other nations stand up for their rational interest) reasonable solutions -- that aren't even so difficult, may be possible.

Restarting the Nuclear Race by Richard Butler http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/02/opinion/02BUTL.html

makes a very good case.

"Reduction of the nuclear threat can best be accomplished directly through arms control and disarmament. This would cost a fraction of what the administration will need for missile defense."

And disarmament, unlike missile defense, is actually workable if, somehow, American citizens can be made to pay attention to what is really happening, and what the world situation actually is.

We should get on with it.

rodolsen0 - 12:15pm May 2, 2001 EST (#2985 of 2996)

The President's words do not hide the intent of his actions. The way forward is to rekindle the arms race. Of course, his missile defence is designed to intimidate Russia and China. The spectre haunting the last Bush presidency - Saddam in Iraq - is a smokescreen. The US military-industrial complex has been in the doldrums since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Son of Star Wars will provide billions in funding to arms developers and manufacturers. Billions that could otherwise better educate US children, overcome poverty in the US, combat the US contribution to greenhouse gas emissions, provide health care to millions in the US who cannot afford private health insurance and provide millions of jobs in the all the developments to meeet the needs of ordinary people in the US. But the appeal to the President is the mirage of achieving what President Reagan failed to do - Star Wars. World peace is now threatened by the deluded dreams of President George W Bush.

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