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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?

lunarchick - 11:08am Aug 16, 2001 EST (#7893 of 7905)
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China sends desperate North Koreans home

Repatriated refugees face torture and starvation http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,7369,537524,00.html

kilroy_42 - 05:39pm Aug 16, 2001 EST (#7894 of 7905)

I have often heard the phrase "There is no perfect defense" and "a missile defense system can not stop ALL missiles". Both of those statements are probably true, but that doesn't make them valid arguments. When the first knight strapped on the first breastplate he did not think of it as a perfect defense, or that it made him invulnerable. It's purpose is to help prevent fatal injuries and to reduce the amount of damage received.

How much is New York worth? Or Los Angeles, or Washington D.C. ( ok not Washington D.C. ), or Dix, Illinois? Virtually all opponents of missile defense state the cost and how it won't make us invulnerable ( some even argue that it would make the US invulverable and thus cause destabilization ), but if a national missile defense knocks down just ONE nuclear missile aimed at American soil then it would be worth the cost. If the cost of a working missile defense is $100 BILLION dollars and it shot down a missle heading toward a major city and saved 1 million people from death or injury, that would come out to be $100,000 per person saved. How much IS a person worth? If the cost was $500 per person would that be OK?

lunarchick - 10:19pm Aug 16, 2001 EST (#7895 of 7905)
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New York and cities above - are worth less - than they were. G7 economies (the world's richest seven) have stalled. That's why the third world needs encouragement - they could be NEW viable customers for G7 goods. Newwise Note Russia is selling conventional arms to everyone! And the Boeing_Bees are Buzzing in Moscow.

The last American i noticed strapping on a breast plate was Madonna. And she did it for incrementally financial purposes - as do the rest!

How much is a person worth? Not much if you live off Papua New Guinea, have rising sea_salt levels, can no longer grow staple crops ... and even your own government won't send in food-aid. Not much if you live in N.Korea where dollars for MD are more important that food aid. Not much if you live in the USA - belong to a single working parent who works nights leaving kids alone .. who may get into trouble and end up in the prison system. But if you live in the USA and have the RIGHT name ... then life can be great - in every STATE. Everything is relative!

Investor Developers have moved on Moscow - let's hope there are building regulations to retain aesthetics ... is there a Moscow skyline? Ah yes, the golden domes - more voluptous than any goddess of pop.

lunarchick - 08:57am Aug 17, 2001 EST (#7896 of 7905)
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!

lunarchick - 11:50pm Aug 17, 2001 EST (#7897 of 7905)
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Osprey - forging maintenance logs - dereliction of duty. To make the v22 til rota appear more reliable than it was.

Shouldn't the point here be - why didn't the Osprey work on paper? Why put dirt on the guys who couldn't understand why it didn't.

Candid Camera: Interesting to note that these guys had an image of a 'working' machine .. and tried to make the dummy machine live up to workability. How would they conceive that the machine actually built - with built-in failure!

lunarchick - 11:59pm Aug 17, 2001 EST (#7898 of 7905)
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Showalter your sojourn must be over - looking at the post above - there have to be interesting psychological factors in-play.

Starting with the primate mind ...

lunarchick - 12:18am Aug 18, 2001 EST (#7899 of 7905)
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~ RED[]

~ C13 horsepower

Bwsh didn't come back from the ranch to meet up with the 'black_mayors' .... they were Democrats and wondered about expenditure on MD when their poor had unmet needs.

lunarchick - 12:27am Aug 18, 2001 EST (#7900 of 7905)
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"We do not have any illusions about President Putin's abilities and moral principles" ~ http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,2763,538604,00.html "He has known what he wants right from the start - Soviet power without communists."

lunarchick - 12:33am Aug 18, 2001 EST (#7901 of 7905)
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Rumsfeld viewed the entire body of treaties and agreements with Moscow which he helped to create with evident distaste.

That "whole network of treaties" was "set up 25 years ago,'' he observed. ''We need to get over it.'' The Russians got the message, and did not like it at all. One participant at a meeting with Mr Rumsfeld came away calling America's missile defence shield ''inevitable.''

Alexei Arbatov, the Russian parliament's foremost expert on defence and security, despaired that there was no point in carrying on talks with the Americans on arms control and missile defence.

"Nothing is discussed in earnest. It is one step forward, two steps back,'' he told the Nezavisimaya Gazeta newspaper. http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,537988,00.html

ledzeppelin - 12:17pm Aug 18, 2001 EST (#7902 of 7905)

Russia N.Korea Iran Iraq China Syria Libya and all Eastern European nations are all making destabalising mutterings! Why does not Pres Bush listen before the whole issue goes into freefall and the US will have created a new cold war for nothing more than making just a few so called defence company executives even richer than they are to day...... for what! A defence system that will not defend the USA from a rogue ant; let alone a terrorist or rogue state?

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