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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 - 07:08am Jun 18, 2001 EST (#5332 of 5339)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Bush's Warmth Toward Russian Leader Stirs Skeptics by JANE PERLEZ http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/18/world/18DIPL.html

WASHINGTON, June 17 - "The warm rapport shown between President Bush and the Russian president, just one day after Mr. Bush declared that he wanted NATO to expand up to Russia's border, represented a significant achievement for the Americans, a senior official who helped plan the Bush trip said today.

" But critics on Capitol Hill said Mr. Bush was too willing to pronounce the Russian, Vladimir V. Putin, to be trustworthy after the two met on Saturday in Slovenia for the first time.

. . . . .

" `'I can understand the strategy on rapport, but it went too far,'' said Mr. McFaul. ``I think there is plenty of good reason not to trust President Putin. This is a man who was trained to lie.''

What successful politician or businessman, anywhere in the world, is not trained to lie, and good at it?

_________

On the subject of consistency, here's another point that interests me, from a man whose knowledge, based on reading a lot of his stuff, I think merits attention. He goes by " willjusa ": http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee81446/720

rshowalter - 07:09am Jun 18, 2001 EST (#5333 of 5339)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

I was stunned, and some of my plans Saturday were stopped, when I read this beautiful article in the WEEK IN REVIEW . . .

WHEN LIES KILL In China, the Right to Truth Meets Life and Death By ERIK ECKHOLM http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/17/weekinreview/17ECKH.html

The horror the article sets out, it seems to me, is exactly analogous to the horrors of the Cold War, and some of the same solutions are needed. And the Chinese, at some levels, know it, and at others, don't know it well enough -- they published an article about telling the truth about the past in their flagship newspaper that set out, very well, the patterns that would be needed -- if only they could find the will to do, for themselves, what they ask of the United States, Japan, and others.

We need redemptive solutions, to problems that have to be understood, and resolved, at the level of staffed organizations.

The same problems are happening again and again.

Thomas Friedman thinks the internet is part of the solution, and I think so too.

rshowalter - 07:27am Jun 18, 2001 EST (#5334 of 5339)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

ECKHOLM's article sets out examples where lies, on the part of the Chinese, have killed tens of millions of people.

Lies could kill us all.

A key point is that the truth , which may seem impossibly painful to face -- impossibly dangerous to face, often really can be faced, at quite moderate costs, and has to be.

In the complex world as it is, there are a lot of "truths" that have to be sorted out -- for particular reasons -- not all of them pretty - - and when these involve organizations, and require staffs to keep track of, people haven't always been very good at doing it.

With the internet, which expands human memory, and makes it more possible to handle complexity, we can handle these jobs better. This thread is an attempt at getting communication to closure between staffed organizations, on issues that are complex, and involve much detail. It seems to me, muddle and all, that we're getting somewhere.

rshowalter - 07:31am Jun 18, 2001 EST (#5335 of 5339)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

One thing seems key to me. In many of these situations "perfect justice" isn't possible -- and it can't even be defined.
MD817 rshowalter 3/1/01 4:27pm ... MD818 rshowalter 3/1/01 4:32pm

We need reframings -- secular redemptive solutions -- that can work, even in a world where some injustice is unavoidable. We can do a lot better than we're doing. The example of China offers some wrenching examples. Japan does, too. India does, too. The same can be said, in many ways, about the nations involved in the Cold War.

Lies can kill. Technical means are evolving and being perfected, on the internet and elsewhere, so that we can have fewer and less lethal lies, in ways that work for the people involved.

It takes time, care, and a lot of talking.

There's a solid reason why mercy -- an idea Henry Kissenger seems to consider too little -- has to be involved. That is that our human minds are limited, compared to the problems that we must face, individually and together. A lot of the time, when we're trying to do something difficult or new or complicated, or when patterns change, we're in over our head - and neither our technical execution nor our morality are perfect.

But messes, very often, do get sorted out.

Maybe some of these messes, too.

possumdag - 07:34am Jun 18, 2001 EST (#5336 of 5339)
Possumdag@excite.com

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