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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 - 10:21pm Jul 11, 2001 EST (#6950 of 6974)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Especially when bad decisions on the issue put the United States at vital risk in the old, raw sense where "vital" means " a matter of life and death."

rshowalter - 10:28pm Jul 11, 2001 EST (#6951 of 6974)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

I've been at this a while --- on September 25th I had an all-day meeting with a person who seemed authoritative -- and made a simple proposal that still seems reasonable to me, if incomplete:
MD266 rshowalt 9/25/00 7:32am ... MD267 rshowalt 9/25/00 7:33am
MD268 rshowalt 9/25/00 7:35am ... MD269 rshowalt 9/25/00 7:36am

After that, we discussed nuclear weapons all day, till I made an offer that still stands in MD304 rshowalt 9/25/00 5:28pm

lunarchick - 12:50am Jul 12, 2001 EST (#6952 of 6974)
lunarchick@www.com

CALUMNIATED ... on Rice and Men

When people make a field of study their own, live with it, work with it, research and theorise, visit, meet the people, and through common language, culture and experience, integrate and blend ......

How should i put this :

The question is, if Rice has such a knowledge of and scholastic feel for her area of scholarship - Russia .... how come she earns so low a grade in the negotiations department ?
~ http://english.pravda.ru/main/2001/07/09/9649.html

lunarchick - 01:06am Jul 12, 2001 EST (#6953 of 6974)
lunarchick@www.com

Has the US gone wobbly over biological weapons? http://www.newscientist.com/opinion/opinterview.jsp?id=ns22995

lunarchick - 01:10am Jul 12, 2001 EST (#6954 of 6974)
lunarchick@www.com

United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said today that the increase in lives lost and young people maimed due to small arms and light weapons was “intolerable”. UNICEF estimates that since 1990, more than 2 million children have been killed, 6 million disabled and 20 million displaced by conflict. Nearly 300,000 children worldwide are involved in conflicts where they are forced to use small arms to fight “adult wars”. http://www.un.org/News/ossg/hilites.htm

rshowalter - 08:26am Jul 12, 2001 EST (#6955 of 6974)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Work to Begin on Site for Testing Missile Defense By JAMES DAO http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/12/politics/12MILI.html

"WASHINGTON, July 11 — The Pentagon will notify Congress on Monday that it plans to begin preparatory work in mid-August on a new missile-defense test site at Fort Greely, in Alaska, the first step in a more aggressive testing program.

"Pentagon officials said today that they would award a contract of more than $8 million by Aug. 15 for preliminary work on five missile silos.

"Senior Pentagon officials also said the Bush administration wanted to have an emergency antimissile system in operation by 2005 or earlier. That rudimentary system, the officials said, might include not only missile interceptors based in Alaska but also lasers and interceptors launched from ships.

"Deploying any kind of system intended to protect the entire nation against long-range ballistic missiles would violate the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty with Russia.

"For that reason, arms control advocates have called the Alaska test site a ploy to abrogate the treaty. The Pentagon denies that, saying the new site will allow for more realistic tests than currently possible.

"The preparatory work at Fort Greely, which would initially involve little more than clearing trees, would not violate the ABM treaty, Pentagon officials said.

(more)

rshowalter - 08:28am Jul 12, 2001 EST (#6956 of 6974)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

"But the Pentagon has devised a new test schedule for antimissile technology that is far more aggressive than the plan under the Clinton administration, the senior Pentagon officials said today. Many missile defense critics have said they expect this new schedule to speed up tests that are likely to violate the treaty.

"Indeed, new tests are likely to come into conflict with the treaty "in months, not years," according to a Bush administration official.

"Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld said tonight in a meeting with reporters that "we have no plans at the present time to deploy."

"Mr. Rumsfeld said that given the short summer construction season in Alaska, it would be all but impossible to do the kind of work this year that would violate the treaty."

*****

This 8 million contract is a small step, in itself -- the clearing of some trees -- preparation for five silos. Given lead times, for the administration to keep saying it will proceed with missile defense -- it has to do such things. But the concern with this act, and about missile defense, are based on much deeper concerns.

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