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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 - 10:05am Aug 8, 2001 EST (#7781 of 7787)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

You don't have to be a "saint" to hope, in this situation, for a reframing, for some sort of "secular redemption" Secretary Rumsfeld has expressed some hope for that, above.

There are barriers, "baggage" -- and ideas long well expressed, but somehow not persuasive, need to get past "chain breakers" We need redemptive and detonative solutions, in senses set out in two expository poems:
Secular Redemption ... http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?13@@.ee79f4e/619 and
Chain Breakers ... http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee79f4e/618

We have to come to better solutions, that work for the cultures and sociotechnical systems involved, with both risk and opportunity so much at stake here.

rshowalter - 10:06am Aug 8, 2001 EST (#7782 of 7787)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Responsibility, War, and Peace:

MD6924 rshowalter 7/11/01 12:42pm ... MD6925 rshowalter 7/11/01 12:44pm
MD6926 almarst-2001 7/11/01 1:18pm ... MD6927 rshowalter 7/11/01 1:41pm

rshowalter - 01:53pm Aug 8, 2001 EST (#7783 of 7787)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

MD7429 rshowalter 7/25/01 11:00am ... MD7431 rshowalter 7/25/01 11:04am
MD7432 rshowalter 7/25/01 11:06am ... MD7433 rshowalter 7/25/01 11:08am
MD 7434 rshowalter 7/25/01 11:20am ... MD7435 rshowalter 7/25/01 11:25am
MD7436 rshowalter 7/25/01 8:52pm ...

With reframings, which may be going on now. it should be possible to have Mutually Assured Deterrance , with reasonably proportionate means, without the current, disproportionate Mutually Assured Destruction of the World.

Maybe it can be done with the US and Russia both acting in ways that they can be proud to explain, for generations.

Maybe it will be messier than that.

Anyway, it does seem reasonable to hope that the world may be getting safer.

rshowalter - 02:46pm Aug 8, 2001 EST (#7784 of 7787)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

A discussion of the Corpus of the Times articles cited in this NYT - Science Missile Defense thread, with some links to articles cited. rshowalter 7/31/01 11:42am

It helps to have a record:
Last week's NYT coverage of missile defense
MD7648-7651 rshowalter 7/31/01 11:42am

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New York Times on the Web Forums Science Missile Defense