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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 - 05:41pm Aug 23, 2001 EST (#8067 of 8070)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

The NYT - Science - Missile Defense thread is ungainly, in the same kind of way that human memory is ungainly, in the same way that trial transcripts are ungainly. In part because there is so much in it. But with the net, the details in it can be brought up -- it is a sort of "associative memory." Things come into focus -- and extensive focused evidence, subject to supplementation and critique, is there to be brought to bear. Perhaps the format can be useful.

My background is unusual. It is a source of both insight and difficulties for myself and people who have to deal with me.

Writings connecting me to Bill Casey:
MD6057 rshowalter 6/26/01 7:22am .... MD6370-71 rshowalter 7/1/01 7:19am

My technical background and orientation:
MD6397-99 rshowalter 7/2/01 8:00am . . . I'm trying, with enormous and distinguished help from Dawn Riley, within the limits of my strength and resources, to get some facts checked.

I'm hoping to set out many arguments, like a case to a jury, subject to crossexamination, and then "pick a fight" - in some way that can work in public -- to establish truths that remain, so far "somehow too weak."

Postings that may interest some of you start with this:

" I've often thought, writing on these forums, about whether I've been keeping faith with Bill Casey -- doing things that, on balance, he would have thought reasonable, and right . . . and includes this:

" (Dawn and I) were especially interested in dialog with almarst after we read "Muddle in Moscow" http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=533129 ..... ... MD7389-90 rshowalter 7/24/01 8:18pm ... When we read that story, we imagined that we really were dealing with a powerful man who had taken time, with a staff, to do some listening. Or perhaps we were in a "dry run" that that powerful person might be interested in. And for the next week, Dawn and I worked hard to tell almarst things we thought President Putin might be able to use. We got a lot of perceptive dialog back from almarst while we were doing it.

MD1127 rshowalter 3/17/01 5:06pm ... MD1128 rshowalter 3/17/01 5:31pm
MD1129 rshowalter 3/17/01 5:38pm ... MD1130 rshowalter 3/17/01 5:38pm

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rshowalter - 05:42pm Aug 23, 2001 EST (#8068 of 8070)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

MD1131 rshowalter 3/17/01 6:02pm ... MD1132 rshowalter 3/17/01 6:10pm
Kline's Index of complexity -- V + P + L < C < V times P times L ... a key reason why truth is critical for good function in complex systems.

MD1133 rshowalter 3/17/01 6:13pm ... MD1134 rshowalter 3/17/01 6:17pm
MD1135 rshowalter 3/17/01 6:19pm ... MD1136 rshowalter 3/17/01 6:24pm
MD1138 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?14@184.AUTIa4Lctqa^1253826@.f0ce57b/1235... MD1139 lunarchick 3/17/01 7:47pm
MD1140 lunarchick 3/17/01 7:52pm

The need for 3 views -- the need to account for positions that have "some of the truth, but not all of it." MD1143 rshowalter 3/17/01 8:03pm ... MD1144 rshowalter 3/17/01 8:04pm
MD1145 rshowalter 3/17/01 8:22pm

MD1150 rshowalter 3/17/01 9:57pm

The dialog went on, and we got onto some information, I felt it was crucial for senior Russians to know, about economic efficiency: MD1394 rshowalter 3/23/01 5:30pm ... MD1395 rshowalter 3/23/01 5:36pm
MD1396 rshowalter 3/23/01 5:38pm ... MD1397 rshowalter 3/23/01 5:41pm
MD1398 rshowalter 3/23/01 5:43pm ... MD1399 rshowalter 3/23/01 5:51pm
MD1400 rshowalter 3/23/01 5:53pm . and, for emphasis, ... MD 1401 rshowalter 3/23/01 5:56pm

It is important for Russians to talk more informatively and reliably among themselves, and with others.
MD1402 rshowalter 3/23/01 5:58pm ... MD1403 rshowalter 3/23/01 6:22pm
MD1404 rshowalter 3/23/01 6:33pm

MD1405-8 rshowalter 3/23/01 6:37pm

A key point that should be common ground, for all the disappointment and bitterness: MD1409 rshowalter 3/23/01 7:10pm

And I suggested an exercise in MD1410-1415 rshowalter 3/23/01 7:30pm

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