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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 - 10:50pm Jul 23, 2001 EST (#7354 of 7356)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

MD6578-84 rshowalter 7/4/01 9:12pm ... MD5545-48 rshowalter 6/20/01 12:53pm
MD4563 rshowalter 6/7/01 6:19pm ...

MD3777 rshowalter 5/12/01 8:56pm ... MD3045-46 rshowalter 5/2/01 5:31pm
MD2643 rshowalter 4/26/01 8:41pm

" If more Americans could rise to Kerrey's level of moral sensitivity, current grave risks to the survival of the whole world could be ended.

April 30, 2001, Op.Ed. ESSAY Syndrome Returns by WILLIAM SAFIRE http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/30/opinion/30SAFI.html

" Partly to avoid late-hitting charges of individual brutalization and atrocity, military planners are banishing close combat in favor of long-range missiles and smart bombs from 15,000 feet. War by remote control means that more civilians may die but less guilt will be felt."

What does this say about the value the US military places on the death of people who are not Americans?..

Nationals of other nations, and leaders of other nations, should ask the question.

It is easy to sympathize with "missile defense" -- but not as a shield, to free the striking hand of a nation that kills "others" without qualm, so long as it does not have to watch.

MD2691 rshowalter 4/28/01 7:30am

rshowalter - 10:52pm Jul 23, 2001 EST (#7355 of 7356)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

almarst almost never asks questions about missile defense considered in isolation.

He's concerned about military balances, in light of history, as it has actually happened.

Perhaps the Cold War is over. It should be. But given the past, the United States should give reasonable assurances that it is.

rshowalter - 11:01pm Jul 23, 2001 EST (#7356 of 7356)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

MD7046 rshowalter 7/15/01 10:35am ... MD7047 rshowalter 7/15/01 10:35am

US missile defense efforts are happening in a context that we shouldn't forget -- because other nations, and people, can't be expected to.

..... we have to understand what the US has done --

THREATS TO USE NUCLEAR WEAPONS: The Sixteen Known Nuclear Crises of the Cold War, 1946-1985 by David R. Morgan , National President, Veterans Against Nuclear Arms Vancouver, Canada March 6, 1996 http://scienceforpeace.sa.utoronto.ca/WorkingGroupsPage/NucWeaponsPage/Documents/ThreatsNucWea.html

On nuclear matters, much more often than not we have been the agressors

MD7007 rshowalter 7/13/01 1:03pm ...

" The administration's missile defense program, taken as a whole, could scarely be worse adapted to meet ( the needs of world safety ). The administration is making plainly false assumptions, about the rest of the world, about the threats, about the technical possibilities -- again and again. The administration is pushing to "solve" threats that are not credible, with technology that cannot work, at the same time putting dangerous pressures on Russia, at a time when effectively ending the policies of the Cold War should be a major priority, and stresses in Russia are a threat to us."

Even so, with good negotiations, honest on both sides, the world could be a much safer place, pretty quickly, and a lot of ugliness could be redeemed.

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