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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 - 03:02pm Jul 31, 2001 EST (#7655 of 7772)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Could these things be explained so that ideas, long expressed by many people, but "somehow too weak" -- could be more widely judged - and judged with enough attention that people drew reasonable conclusions.

Could they be checked so that the most advanced technical matters could be adressed - -but everything of importance could also be clearly explained?

Yes. - - and pieces of the job have been illustrated here, or are in place. Dawn and I have done pieces of the explaination job, and could do more. Some other skills would need to be brought to bear. The costs, in terms of the stakes, are small. If nation states decided they wanted right answers on these issues, the work required for real checking would happen.

If nation states wanted the truth of these matters determined, and said so in effective ways, direct or indirect, resources sufficient to get these matters checked would be found.

The internet is well adapted to getting the checking done and explained.

The possibility that nation states may care enough for this is consistent with things in the news, and some things in this thread.

rshowalter - 03:16pm Jul 31, 2001 EST (#7656 of 7772)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Exchanges with gisterme , including those yesterday, seem encouraging in that regard.

MD7611gisterme 7/30/01 3:59pm ... MD7613 rshowalter 7/30/01 5:16pm
MD7621gisterme 7/30/01 6:49pm ... MD7622 rshowalter 7/30/01 7:17pm
MD7624 gisterme 7/30/01 7:41pm ... MD7625 rshowalter 7/30/01 8:13pm
MD7626 rshowalter 7/30/01 8:34pm ...

Postings by almarst , including his 8 posts of the 27th MD7559 rshowalter 7/28/01 9:33pm .... also seem encouraging in that respect.

. . . .

Yesterday I read most, though not all, of gisterme's postings on this thread, and collected all the links for posting and easy reference. I'm getting them organized and ready to post.

rshowalter - 05:34pm Jul 31, 2001 EST (#7657 of 7772)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

MD6839 rshowalter 7/10/01 10:14am

Counting search pages, for characters, gives some sense of the participation of major people involved on this thread. Here are the number of search pages for these posters (as of MD6839 )

Putin stand-in, Almarst --- 66 search pages.

Bush Advisor stand-in, gisterme ----- 59 search pages

Clinton stand-in, beckq, or cookies2, discripto ----- 7 search pages

Dawn and I have posted most. But the involvement of the "stand-ins" has been very extensive, too, represents an enormous work committment on thier part. Their postings are, I think, very impressive. The involvement of these "stand-ins" continues. I believe that their work has assisted in the focusing of problems where neither the US nor the Russians were clear about how to make contact with each other before.

MD6837 rshowalter 7/10/01 10:13am MD6838 rshowalter 7/10/01 10:13am

rshowalter - 05:35pm Jul 31, 2001 EST (#7658 of 7772)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

A listing of gisterme's postings is set out in Cast of characters -- gisterme .. (1, 2)
MD3353 rshowalter 5/6/01 10:55am . . . MD3354 rshowalter 5/6/01 10:56am

Here are more directories of gisterme's links - - each posting is a directory of 30 links, usually long postings, by gisterme .
MD4591 rshowalter 6/7/01 9:10pm ... MD4592 rshowalter 6/7/01 9:12pm
MD4593 rshowalter 6/7/01 9:12pm ... MD4594 rshowalter 6/7/01 9:13pm
MD4595 rshowalter 6/7/01 9:14pm ... MD4596 rshowalter 6/7/01 9:14pm

Here are more links to gisterme .

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