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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 - 07:33am Aug 25, 2001 EST (#8128 of 8139)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

The key points need to be well explained - - - so people can actually understand them --- including the large number of people who need to understand, and remembering that understanding good enough for action goes deep.

The expository resources for doing that level of explaining are available in the culture -- and expository power is increasing. This paper offers examples.

Here are other sources of expository power:

Exhibit Services . . . http://www.exhibit-services.com/

http://www.carlsagan.com/feature/press.html

MD7652 rshowalter 7/31/01 2:52pm ... MD7653 rshowalter 7/31/01 2:54pm

detour3210 - 03:41pm Aug 25, 2001 EST (#8129 of 8139)

I don't think we'll be getting any bang for our bucks with this Missile Defense military fantasy. Oh sure, it would be nice to have the capacity to pop off an incoming ICBM, but the poor man's terrorist attack will probably not be coming from above at all. It will be a cowardly ground-based attack from the likes of a wunderkind like Tim NutVeigh. Our resources should be spent looking into developing effective and comprehensiive anti-terrorist counter measures, and beyond that, to actually figure out ways to nail these human pariahs right in the behavioral sinkholes that spawns them. The White Hat Space Cowboy idea that Good President Bush favors is somewhat of an anachronism that went out with Tom Mix. A whole new military spending priority needs to be constructed that analyses and interdicts the realtime nature of the modern urban guerilla terrorists who, for example, are wreaking such havoc on Israeli security, a microcosm of the nature of the real threat to US security concerns.

lunarchick - 03:54pm Aug 25, 2001 EST (#8130 of 8139)
lunarchick@www.com

Odd_bods like Tim are 'made' via their interactions with disfunctionallity. Seemingly he couldn't understand why the Superpower army was killing a shabby enemy ... and came to hate and blame his government.

Were the Superpowers to pour the same dollars into ensuring peace, ensuring people enfranchment, looking to build viable futures for a changing world ... then perhaps fewer odd_bods would manifest.

lunarchick - 04:01pm Aug 25, 2001 EST (#8131 of 8139)
lunarchick@www.com

East Germany Stasi files http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/25/international/europe/25STAS.html

People on all sides agree that the Stasi files are a mine of information about the inside workings of one of the world's most tightly run dictatorships. For many Germans in the east, access to the archives is crucial to understanding what happened and coming to terms with their past

rshowalter - 05:38pm Aug 25, 2001 EST (#8132 of 8139)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Coming to terms with the past is a problem for ending the Cold War, as well -- the biggest problem. And for a workable future -- where people can go forward, they have to know crucial things about the past -- because they need the information to make decisions.

And if the circumstance is very complex and involves unforseeables, only the truth is safe.

lunarchick - 08:36pm Aug 25, 2001 EST (#8133 of 8139)
lunarchick@www.com

America the unbeautiful

If President Bush refuses to change himself, we must do it for him

Special report: George Bush's America

Bianca Jagger Sunday July 22, 2001 http://www.observer.co.uk/bush/story/0,8224,525502,00.html

rshowalter - 08:44pm Aug 25, 2001 EST (#8134 of 8139)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

If Bush refuses to change, we have to seriosly consider the "culture of lying" and how to deal with it -- both in the United States, and abroad.

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