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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 - 09:19pm Aug 8, 2001 EST (#7793 of 7807)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

MD7514 rshowalter 7/27/01 7:29pm ... MD7251 rshowalter 7/19/01 5:15pm
MD6597 rshowalter 7/4/01 10:23pm ... MD5353 rshowalter 6/18/01 11:28am
MD5354 rshowalter 6/18/01 11:39am ... MD5355 rshowalter 6/18/01 11:40am
MD4570 rshowalter 6/7/01 6:53pm ... MD4571 rshowalter 6/7/01 6:54pm
MD4573 rshowalter 6/7/01 7:03pm ... MD4576 rshowalter 6/7/01 7:07pm
MD3523 rshowalter 5/8/01 4:12pm ... MD6839 rshowalter 7/10/01 10:14am

I wish that Bush and his high officers, when they found things getting ugly, would think harder about the ideas they were basing their decisions on. They could be wrong - - in both a practical and moral sense. The two kinds of "wrong" go together pretty often.

I wish for the same about Putin, as well. He needs to assess the size of his risks, his costs, and his opportunities.

Some "inelegant" accomodations, given technical realities, might make real world sense.

If there are questions about key technical realities, why not ask them? Why not ask them forcefully enough, and with formalities good enough, to get real answers? Answers that can be set out, so that they are completely understood, in public.

If the US has a big secret it is simple: there are no big secrets.

Missile defense is as bad as it looks.

Peace, on the other hand, looks good.

Almost everybody in the world would stand to gain -- and those who would NOT stand to gain ought to be asked, publically and effectively, to explain themselves.

rshowalter - 09:51pm Aug 8, 2001 EST (#7794 of 7807)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

United States, Russia End 'Positive' Security Talks By REUTERS http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-arms-us.html

lunarchick - 10:45pm Aug 8, 2001 EST (#7795 of 7807)
lunarchick@www.com

If the remark had been made by almost anyone outside the Bush administration, it might have passed unnoticed as a statement of the blindingly obvious. The fact it came from the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, makes it deeply disturbing.

The possession of "overwhelming nuclear power", he said, does not deter every type of conflict. We've had the Korean war, he told journalists in Australia, where he has been drumming up support for the US administration's missile defence project and its intention to play a more active role in Asia. We've had the Vietnam war, he added, the Gulf war, and "we have seen terrorists attack things".

Could it be that Rumsfeld had suddenly seen the light and recognised that because the US did not drop a nuclear bomb in these conflicts (though there were those who advocated such a course) nuclear deterrence had failed - even that nuclear weapons have no place in modern military doctrine?

Far from it. America's refusal to ratify the comprehensive test ban treaty is proof enough that nuclear weapons remain a central feature of US strategic policy ... ~ http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,534097,00.html a comprehensive MUST READ piece ... ending

rather than indulging in a posture of arrogant unlilateralism, Washington should consider the causes of the real threats to the US and where they come from.

Suggesting to look inside the HEADS of the USA President's Administration!

lunarchick - 10:52pm Aug 8, 2001 EST (#7796 of 7807)
lunarchick@www.com

Russian OIL - seismic testing in the sea off Sakhalin, threatens Whale Colonies. Comprehensive - FT.com

lunarchick - 11:03pm Aug 8, 2001 EST (#7797 of 7807)
lunarchick@www.com

US economic growth drifted to a near standstill in the last two months, according to the Federal Reserve's latest "Beige Book" summary of regional economic conditions

(see www.ft.com)
... perhaps people have lost confidence in their (OIL/Military) government ?!

rshowalter - 11:08pm Aug 8, 2001 EST (#7798 of 7807)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

lunarchick 8/8/01 10:45pm
and in their HEARTS

MD4518 rshowalter 6/5/01 4:44pm ... MD4520 almarst-2001 6/5/01 6:27pm
MD7048 rshowalter 7/15/01 10:51am ... MD7049 rshowalter 7/15/01 10:56am

It shouldn't be so easy to commit, and continue committment, to patterns that can convert tens of millions of people, and under easily imaginable circumstances, the whole world, into shards of flesh, and rotting unburied corpses

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