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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?

gisterme - 09:23pm May 8, 2001 EST (#3565 of 3595)

cod37 wrote: "...An an engineer, I know these things are difficult, expensive and in the case of NMD close to impossible. But I can't see any need for this stuff whatsover. It does not add to wealth building of our economy. And I can't find the enemy..."

Great observation cod37. Nobody believes that the US, Russia, China or any of the ex-cold war players want to launch a military conquest. None of them want war. So where IS the enemy? That's simple. The enemy is mistrust. There's no way that whipping dead horses can restore trust. The only way that can be done is by building trust, starting now.

A forward looking point that alarmst brought up is PRESENT Russian concern that if we today achieved our objective of total nuclear disarmament, the US would be left in a position of conventional military superiority... He cited the gulf war (and subsequent action in Iraq) and Kosovo as examples that the US has aggressive intentions.

I'll only disagree with his implication of what that means.

The US used its military power to free Kuwait from Iraqi occupation. It is common knowledge that the Iraqi army used the invasion of Kuwait as an occasion for rape and pillage. I ask you, what's the matter with putting a stop to that? Keep in mind that the very heavy UN sanctions placed on Iraq immedately after its invasion of Kuwait had done nothing to cause Saddam to withdraw. The coalition action to free Kuwait was NOT an act of conquest by the US. The US expended considerable treasure and risked its people to help a friend. What's the matter with that?

Kosovo is a different matter. That the US intervened at all shows the general lack of qualification and understanding of the previous administration in dealing with world affairs. It failed to understand that centuries of tribal dispute can't be solved by outside intervention...even though the reasons for the intervention can be spun into a human rights issue as they were. Whatever one may think of Mr. Milosovic and his methods, recent actions of the KLA prove that point. As an American, I can say that I feel ashamed that there's a real possibility that the President of the United States may have had his foreign policy judgement influenced by his desire to avoid to consequences of his own personal misconduct at home. That's another point that alarmst made that I must agree with. Mr. Clinton's "nation building" paradigm based on the use of international "peace keepers" has proven to be a bust. My sincere hope is that the whole world, starting with the US has learned an important lesson here. Local disputes need to be solved by local folks.

So what about the potential conventional military imbalance? Could the product of our mutual enemy, mistrust, be the concept of a requirement for "balance". That makes the pessimistic assumption that one "side" wants to somehow overthow the other "side". We're all swimming in the same pool now; there aren't any "sides" in the same sense that there were during the cold war. Isn't it up to everybody to keep their own heads above the water?

...out for today.

georgeyorg - 09:42pm May 8, 2001 EST (#3566 of 3595)

Rshowalter is seen here as a lotus eater with positively no sense of perception. Every step the current administration has taken is a HUGE step backward. Need proof? 1. First examine this formula:

Pres. of Vice plus Vice President = Pres. Chaney

2. Now we have the "take no guff, give no quarter" Rumsfeldt escalating a complete space war approach to international relations. Chaney's one upsmanship re Missile Defense now takes on immense proportions and seems sure to bankrupt this country. Pray for Mr. Eisenhower to reappear and condemn corporate folly again.

3. Drugs up 18% (from a price schedule that is about 1000 percent too high already.

4. Gasoline prices up about 35%. Better hurry up and sell those stinking SUV's. What a smart maneuver on the part of the auto industry and their friends in the energy business.

5. Laissez faire on electricity prices. I didn't buy deregulation. did you? Our senators and representatives sat on their fat asses, calling each other names, but taking the same funds from the same sources when the chips were down.

6. To the rear, march! The environmentalists and commonfolk with an eye to the future are certainly happy with the backward moves foisted by Mr. Cheney. (Sorry, I meant to say Bush.) In a pig's rectum!!

7. Mr. Bush says he is the president now and that he was elected. What a bitter joke. The jokesters who sat on the Supreme Court illegally made him the president. If the Democrats go along with this charade we all might as well give up. If you are young you can roll with the punches, but I am quite old and living within my 1980 means on a fixed retirement except for a living cost adjustment, inadequate from the start.

8. Separation of church and state??? Moving a faith organization into the White House? Pretty sickening you will find when certain religions are found not to be represented.

9. Abortion laws to be enforced by a suave junketeer with a history of discrimination against women? Let us see him treat women as well as he has treated doctor murderers and clinic bombers.

10. Possession is nine points of the law. Now that Mr. President Chaney has horrified the rest of the civilized world; all previous solid efforts to maintain the status quo thrown to the stratospheric winds. (read fallout from the first exploded missile intercepted over our territory), if it works of course. After the expending of some hundreds of billion dollars over about 20 years it has not worked even once.

11. Go ahead Mr. Cheney plow under some previous agreements and show us your biceps one more time. Maybe you should be replaced by Caspar Weinberger another stalwart with delusions of grandeur. Is he out of jail yet?

12. It is hell to get old. The worst part is the ideals that led me into two wars and attendant medals, only to see this country become the biggest banana republic of the world. I lay it at Clinton's doorstep now because he emasculated the Democratic party with his Republican leanings. Will some real Democrats in Congress please stand up? The rest of you fakers can go to hell.

rshowalter - 10:10pm May 8, 2001 EST (#3567 of 3595)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Mistrust is not the "enemy". It is a reasonable and proper human condition, and we have to accomodate it. We need to check each other.

It is not reasonable for us to ask other nation states to trust the US.

We don't trust them, and shouldn't.

They shouldn't trust us, either.

That doesn't mean we have to be enemies -- particularly, adversaries who use insanely disproportionate means, such as nuclear weapons.

For instance, the main new thing in my suggestion of 266-269, this tread, is that it is based on mistrust.

_ _ _ _ _ _

I'll be back in the morning.

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