![[F]](../_images/site.gif) New York Times on the Web Forums  Science
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?
    (7486 previous messages)
lunarchick
- 09:00am Jul 27, 2001 EST (#7487
of 7502)
lunarchick@www.com
The post re academic freedom is interesting. New Zealand have
guaranteed academic freedom to their Uni Staff. I note that rather
than stand to fair debate there's a retrospective GONG by the Pent..
Raises the question of how long it will be before they
retrospectively determine that Websters' Dictionary, and every
combination of words there in are 'classifed'. Orewell's
1984 and Animal Farm sound like titles of night time
reading by the 'big brass'. Open the links in first sentence here lunarchick
7/24/01 8:15pm - seems the Admin&Pent have their way and do
what they will, going unchecked by the country with the highest
number of hollywood private investigators in the world?! When do so
many coincidences add up to a point where their amass begins to make
a case. A question coming to mind, is, did Bush the Elders Kids of
limited talent get pushed into politics via the sights of the old
nazi-vigilante's gun? How good was the Washington Post - really?
Simple politicans were one thing ... but the power behind the
throne, the dark shadow .. much explaining has yet to be done.
lunarchick
- 09:20am Jul 27, 2001 EST (#7488
of 7502)
lunarchick@www.com
Wynne (search) noted that within Nations there's a groundswell, a
'gut feeling', with regards to cutting through propaganda, and it is
'popular opinion'. Raises the question, at what point will the
American public determine that the dollars put to defence might be
better spent? Reading through the Politics thread regarding MD
expenditure, it seems that past allocations must have been wasted,
in that basic standard regular equipment in some areas is badly in
need of an upgrade. So, who use to determine where those billions of
dollars were allocated ?
lunarchick
- 09:22am Jul 27, 2001 EST (#7489
of 7502)
lunarchick@www.com
Karaoke Colin http://news.bbc.co.uk/ makes
C.P.Snow proud!
lunarchick
- 09:38am Jul 27, 2001 EST (#7490
of 7502)
lunarchick@www.com
C18
Russian Village Self-sufficiency ... beats the tax man.
rshowalter
- 10:17am Jul 27, 2001 EST (#7491
of 7502) 
Robert Showalter
showalte@macc.wisc.edu
lunarchick
7/27/01 9:20am
" at what point will the American public
determine that the dollars put to defence might be better
spent?"
Perhaps at the point where ordinary Americans are prepared to
consider that large scale lying might be going on - and
therefore be willing to look , rather than look away.
It has to become more legitimate to question the legitimacy of
the military industrial complex - both contractors and the military.
People have to come understand how decision making in military
matters carries such large, and relatively safe, opportunities for
cover up and corruption. Few understand this now, and the
understanding is essential to an understanding of what has
happened.
If you know how military operations, guarded by classification,
work, and how contractors are chosen and pressured, it is perfectly
reasonable that very large amounts of money have been diverted, for
a long time, into paths that are not in the national interest - and
into paths that could subvert american institutions, including both
press institutions and political parties.
Some aspects of the Osprey affair illustrate why. MD978-986 rshowalter
3/14/01 5:22am
The potential for impropriety is clear, but not widely
understood. Patterns such as that shown in Elder Bush in Big
G.O.P. Cast Toiling for Top Equity Firm by LESLIE WAYNE March 5,
2001 http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/05/politics/05CARL.html?pagewanted=all
are ugly , and barely concealed, because they've been
"standard operating procedure" long enough that people have stopped
concealing some things that would have been considered terrible not
so long ago.
The culture of some of the "military industrial complex" -
including the intelligence community - has felt invulnerable for a
long time -- immune from the ordinary decencies involved in
considering others for a long time, or essays like FLYING INTO
TURBULENCE by Peter Martin http://www.intellnet.org/news/articles/peter.martin.flying.into.turbulence.html
couldn't be written, and featured in the "respectable" places where
they are.
It may be that, as people in other countries become more aware
of these patterns, and less tolerant of them, the climate of
American opinion will start to shift in response.
rshowalter
- 10:19am Jul 27, 2001 EST (#7492
of 7502)
Robert Showalter
showalte@macc.wisc.edu
Now, nation states, in serious negotiation with the United
States, are going to have to judge the credibility of our "missile
defense" program carefully, in detail -- with all our important
allies watching.
Some things, long evaded, will be harder and harder to evade as
this goes on.
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