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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 - 12:18pm Jul 15, 2001 EST (#7051 of 7054)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

In MD6351 rshowalter 6/30/01 6:10pm .. gisterme asked a big question for both of us is

" How do we move towards the future, and not get bogged down in the past, except in ways that are necessary so we can deal with the future?"

He raised the question:

" how one can set up a "negotiating game" or "structure" that is illuminating, fair and productive?

At every stage, a point emphasized by gisterme seems central to priority setting.

" How do we move toward a better, fairer, safer future? "

An essential requirement is that we remember the core lessons of our past -- lessons that we often mouth, and ask others to remember.

From Bosnia to Berlin to The Hague, on a Road Toward a Continent's Future by ROGER COHEN http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/15/weekinreview/15WORD.html?pagewanted=all ends as follows:

" Communism promised equality. Hitler promised the 1,000-year Reich. Milosevic promised glory. All the West offers, alongside the prosperity of this boardwalk, is the rule of law. It's enough. It's more than enough on a continent that now knows, as no other, the price of the law's absence. .....

The Bush administration is acting as if it doesn't understand or respect this great conservative principle, and fact of experience. - - - This administration is rejecting this lesson -- that the rule of law has to be respected, and its mechanisms used, not betrayed. Mr. Putin, Meet Mr. Bush: Who Needs Treaties? by THOM SHANKER http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/10/weekinreview/10SHAN.html

rshowalter - 12:22pm Jul 15, 2001 EST (#7052 of 7054)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

The Bush administration is acting, on the basis of ideas most Americans do not share, to destroy the value of the word of the United States in international affairs. To throw away the essence, the foundation, of the rule of law in international affairs. To betray the things the United States is supposed to stand for, and that NATO is supposed to stand for. .... Nuclear Testing and National Honor by RICHARD BUTLER http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/13/opinion/13BUTL.html

The Bush administration is violating basic standards of honorable conduct - sometimes very directly -- at levels where huge amounts of personal money can be involved to the President and his closest associates. Elder Bush in Big GOP Cast Toiling for Top Equity Firm by LESLIE WAYNE http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/05/politics/05CARL.html

On an institutional basis - using patterns well worked out by the Nazis -- and perhaps by no accident at all. C.I.A. Opens Files on Hitler by DAVID JOHNSTON http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/27/world/27CND-INTEL.html .... Concerts Rock the Tiny Kingdom of Skullbonia by NEIL STRAUSS http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/30/arts/30SKUL.html?pagewanted=all

The Bush administration is degrading the United States in many many ways -- some as essential as they can possibly be to our Constitution, and the most fundamental notions of national honor. . . . . The Big Lie by PAUL KRUGMAN http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/27/opinion/27KRUG.html

The administration is associating with people, and tactics, that make Menken's worst gibe about the United States seem just . . . . In Virginia, Young Conservatives Learn How to Develop and Use Their Political Voices by Blaine Harden http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/11/politics/11CONS.html

rshowalter - 12:26pm Jul 15, 2001 EST (#7053 of 7054)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Today, the front page story could scarecely have been more important. It exists on the basis of some other election frauds that excluded thousands of black voters in Florida. When the Bush administration asks United States citizens, or people in other countries to "trust us" these things bear remembering.

How Bush Took Florida: Mining the Overseas Absentee Vote by DAVID BARSTOW and DON VAN NATTA Jr. http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/15/politics/15BALL.html

Timely but Tossed Votes Were Slow to Get to the Ballot Box by MICHAEL COOPER http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/15/politics/15ORLA.html

House Republicans Pressed Pentagon for E-Mail Addresses of Sailors by C. J. CHIVERS http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/15/politics/15HOUS.html

For broader NYT coverage -- an excellent collection: http://www.nytimes.com/indexes/2000/12/15/politics/elections/index.html

The presumption of good faith is very strong among Americans -- and in world diplomacy.

But that presumption, after all, has to stand beside realities. I think Peter Martin http://www.intellnet.org/news/articles/peter.martin.flying.into.turbulence.html ... is badly twisted, but he is right about this:

America is becoming unpopular -- in ways it hasn't been before -- because the Bush administration is throwing away its claims on the respect of the world at a rate few could have believed before Bush's inaugaration.

When the administration asks american citizens, or others to "trust us" this context needs to be remembered.

For many reasons.

If I were a decent Republican (and there are many) I'd be terribly concerned about what the Bush administration is doing, and what it stands for.

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