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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 - 09:24pm Aug 25, 2001 EST (#8135 of 8151)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

We could all be much more polite -- and accomodations would be easier -- if there were "islands of technical fact, beyond question." MD7936 rshowalter 8/20/01 9:08pm

The difficulties with establishing these "islands" are much more social than technical. But we need them.

Perhaps we're making progress toward them.

In a "the emperor's new clothes" story, people are afraid of the emperor, and afraid to believe their own eyes. Afraid of obvious interpretations that don't glorify the status quo.

That fear is eroded by an accumulation of observations, and social interactions. And eventually, a time comes when people have to courage to see what they've been seeing, and denying, for some while.

"Chain Breakers." http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee79f4e/618 become fewer, and an idea that used to be a "fizzle" detonates.

A new idea, truer than the old one, takes hold.

When that occurs -- reframings, new solutions, "secular redemptions" become possible -- and happen many, many times a day, as people adjust to the world as it actually is. Secular Redemption: http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?13@@.ee79f4e/619

The alternatives to getting to truth, when stakes are high, can be ugly. MD1023 rshowalter 3/15/01 10:23am

In order to make some money, and preserve a status quo long since corrupt, people are telling some very ornate lies, and risking the survival of the world. I wish the search capability was re-established here, so people could read the statements of gisterme , and put them in context.

There are truths that can be established, but we have to work through some fears, to face them.

rshowalter - 09:55pm Aug 25, 2001 EST (#8136 of 8151)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

MD7641 rshowalter 7/31/01 9:00am ... MD7644 rshowalter 7/31/01 9:16am
MD7491 rshowalter 7/27/01 10:17am

It has to become more legitimate to question the legitimacy of the military industrial complex - both contractors and the military.

The potential for impropriety is clear, but not widely understood. Patterns such as that shown in Elder Bush in Big G.O.P. Cast Toiling for Top Equity Firm by LESLIE WAYNE March 5, 2001 http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/05/politics/05CARL.html?pagewanted=all are ugly , and barely concealed, because they've been "standard operating procedure" long enough that people have stopped concealing some things that would have been considered terrible not so long ago.

The culture of some of the "military industrial complex" - including the intelligence community - has felt invulnerable for a long time -- immune from the ordinary decencies involved in considering others for a long time, or essays like FLYING INTO TURBULENCE by Peter Martin http://www.intellnet.org/news/articles/peter.martin.flying.into.turbulence.html couldn't be written, and featured in the "respectable" places where they are.

It may be that, as people in other countries become more aware of these patterns, and less tolerant of them, the climate of American opinion will start to shift in response.

rshowalter - 09:56pm Aug 25, 2001 EST (#8137 of 8151)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Overselling has become a way of life in the military-industrial complex:
MD7486 rshowalter 7/27/01 8:29am

MD7058 rshowalter 7/15/01 1:34pm

rshowalter - 09:57pm Aug 25, 2001 EST (#8138 of 8151)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

The "culture of lying" in journalism:
MD6475 rshowalter 7/3/01 10:51am

rshowalter - 09:58pm Aug 25, 2001 EST (#8139 of 8151)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

The . FAREWELL ADDRESS of President Dwight D. Eisenhower January 17, 1961 http://www.geocities.com/~newgeneration/ikefw.htm ... bears reading now. The warnings Eisenhower gave were not heeded, and we're having to deal with the consequences now.

MD7197 rshowalter 7/19/01 8:10am ... MD7198 rshowalter 7/19/01 8:11am
MD7199 rshowalter 7/19/01 8:38am ... MD7200 rshowalter 7/19/01 8:44am

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