Missile Defense

We'd be able to hit more effectively, when we had to -- and we'd need to do it less often -- if we had more allies, and if more people, all over the world, felt that any such actions we took were, on balance justified.

One thing that would take would be a willingness for the US to stand up to the same laws as apply to other countries.

I made a proposal in
MD266:rshowalt 9/25/00 7:32am ... MD267: rshowalt 9/25/00 7:33am
MD268 rshowalt 9/25/00 7:33am .... MD269: rshowalt 9/25/00 7:36am

MD268 included this:

" For effective elimination of nuclear weapons, and to establish conditions so that they stay eliminated, I believe that artists and other people must make it memorably clear how bad nuclear weapons are, so that no one wants to make them again. So that no one condones their use again. If people remember this, anyone trying to make a nuclear weapon is overwhelmingly likely to be caught and punished. It should be the tradition that the property rights and moral rights of anyone making nuclear weapons should be dismissed, and any and all force mobilized to prevent the building of nuclear weapons or their use. "

If that dream could be fulfilled, it would provide better protection for cities all over the world than any anti-missile missile could.

Not that I'm necessarily against belt-and-suspenders approaches, if the means involved hold up what they are supposed to hold up, at a price that makes sense under the circumstances.

gisterme - 08:21pm Jun 1, 2001 EST (#4462 of 4466)

jimmcd53 wrote: "...At the other end of the spectrum, though, there are things we can do to shrink their recruiting pool, not by violence but by winning friends and influencing people..."

That's true, Jim, but so far that's not the approach we've taken. If it's the military's job to kill terrorsits, they've got to find a way to do it without killing innocents.

Personally, I don't believe that all the "terrorist organizations" are as independent as some think. I think they have a common goal of creating an Arab "Califate", coagulated from the many existing Arab nations. Terrorism is principal tool that's being used to create hatred of America and Americans in every one of those places. By providing two common causes, hartred of Americans and Islam, I believe their hope is to overcome nationalism by rallying Arabs to those "common" causes to give birth to a new greater Arab nation.

While I don't really care what the Arabs do about merging their nations to form a new and bigger one (that's their business), I'm frightened by the fact that if that happens, that nation's leaders will be the present terrorist leaders.

gisterme - 08:27pm Jun 1, 2001 EST (#4463 of 4466)

Out for today...

rshowalt - 08:36pm Jun 1, 2001 EST (#4464 of 4466)

me, too. Good days work.

rlgardner01 - 10:41pm Jun 1, 2001 EST (#4465 of 4466)

I just want to say a hearty thank-you to Sen Levin for his comments on missle defense. THANK YOU for finally being someone in charge up there who actually has some sense about this program and who actually seems well, sane. For being someone who doesn't sound like some raving lunatic about this absurd nonsense. Thank youm thank you, thank you.

possumdag - 11:47pm Jun 1, 2001 EST (#4466 of 4466)
Possumdag@excite.com

Everything is a matter of opinion including working for negotiated peace. On carnage, a youth denied a princess, a boy denied a future .... made world headlines by killing others. Suggesting death is a fantacy of an immature male mind - mostly!?!

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