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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 - 06:50pm Jul 10, 2001 EST (#6883 of 6894)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

MD5553 rshowalter 6/20/01 3:31pm

" If George W. Bush found a way to clean up the messes left by the Cold War, get rid of the terror of nuclear weapons, and use American leadership, in cooperation with other countries, in a way that made the United States safer, more prosperous, and more respected, and all legitimate nation states more secure, he'd go down in history as one of the greatest presidents of the United States. (links)

If he doesn't, knowing what he knows, I feel that it should take a new Dante, or a new Johnathan Edwards, to think of the proper punishment for him and his close associates.

MD5554 rshowalter 6/20/01 4:41pm ... But the world is complex, and words are hard to find.

rshowalter - 07:29pm Jul 10, 2001 EST (#6884 of 6894)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

The Cold War ought to be ended - - not endlessly, stupidly prolonged -- now, by senseless actions on the part of the United States. And the human consequences of what has happened need to be understood, in the human ways that matter.

MD798 rshowalter 2/28/01 2:47pm ... reads:

It is worth pointing out a practical sense in which nuclear war is entirely, vividly real - a sense in which crimes and massive injuries have already happened. They have happened, over and over, in great detail, in the imaginations of people. And those imaginations have been made vivid, and reinforced repeatedly, by careful and detailed rehearsals.

People who are part of forces set up to launch nuclear weapons think about what they are going to have to do. In all sorts of ways. Again and again. They have to go on, for years, in a condition where they are plotting premeditated mass murder, and ready to commit it.

- Some among them, if not all, will have guilt feelings about this. And will have built up psychological rationalizations about this. And they will have had to endure a great deal of emotional strain, dealing with this. In the minds of these people, on both sides, nuclear war has already happened. And it has also happened, to an inescapable degree, in their hearts.

- - - - - -

Nuclear weapons are intended to make enemies fear death, and politicians and populations subject to that threat have in fact felt the fear. They have imagined, clearly and vividly, what nuclear destruction would mean to them personally, to the people they care about, to their countries, and to the body of emotional reactions that they live by. In the minds of these people, on both sides, nuclear war has already happened, and they have been injured, violated, and outraged.

It is a mistake to think that nuclear weapons can be considered, realistically, in an abstract, analytical, emotionless way. Absolutely everybody involved is intensely emotional about them. And the emotions involved are deeply conflicted.

This can get in the way of the logic of all concerned. This can immobilize all concerned. The emotional nature of nuclear weapons, and damage already done, and now being sustained, needs to be remembered.

When we negotiate as if fear, and distrust aren't essential parts of our nuclear impasse, we may feel that we are being "polite" but we are also being impractical. The sensible thing is to acknowledge the fear, distrust, and other emotions that are there. And deal with these emotions as they are, in ways that work for all the human beings involved.

almarst-2001 - 08:40pm Jul 10, 2001 EST (#6885 of 6894)

The whole idea behind the MD is to create and enforce the fear for all the nations that the US can and will as it did before, attack anyone with a total impunity.

I challange anyone to come with a CREDIBLE different explanation.

almarst-2001 - 08:50pm Jul 10, 2001 EST (#6886 of 6894)

SERBS IN KOSOVO DO NOT DARE SPEAK THEIR LANGUAGE, FEAR OF WALKING THE STREETS, FEAR OF GOING MAD - http://english.pravda.ru/main/2001/07/10/9710.html

"It looks like all efforts of the international community in the province have been confined to helping exclusively Albanians to get back on their feet. In the meantime, the Serbs are being left in terrible plight, struggling just to survive"

"The total of 130 Serbs are now left in Pristina against over 400,000 ethnic Albanians, says Jordan Markovic, the master of the house. “We live in this house without a chance to go into town. We don’t have even telephones. This house is literally a prison,”

almarst-2001 - 08:51pm Jul 10, 2001 EST (#6887 of 6894)

MACEDONIAN PM: WE ARE WITNESSING A MONSTER ACTUALLY CREATED BY NATO - http://english.pravda.ru/main/2001/07/10/9697.html

almarst-2001 - 08:53pm Jul 10, 2001 EST (#6888 of 6894)

CONDOLEEZA RICE IS COMING TO MOSCOW. WILL SHE PAY A VISIT TO PRAVDA.RU WHICH “CALUMNIATED” HER? - http://english.pravda.ru/main/2001/07/09/9649.html

US National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice is due to pay an official visit to Moscow. She is to spend here 2 days, July 25-26. Her programme includes meetings with Russian politicians and discussing “strategic stability issues.” In February this year, after publicating on our English-version site of the article “ USA National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice Speaks Out Against Russia in interview to "Figaro Magazine," a big row broke out. In particular, it was stirred by the phrase “I believe that Russia is a threat to the West in general and to our European allies in particular”

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