New York Times on the Web Forums Science

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?

aaphrodite - 09:42pm Sep 6, 2001 EST (#8578 of 8595)

! Everyone sleeping?

lunarchick - 10:00pm Sep 6, 2001 EST (#8579 of 8595)
lunarchick@www.com

Seems these guys were the last to put their hands up when time zones were allocated!

lunarchick - 10:08pm Sep 6, 2001 EST (#8580 of 8595)
lunarchick@www.com

Showalter - re your post that communication is important for good functioning within organisations .. and, an organisation with poor communications won't be functioning to the ideal.

The Oz military have been hit by a report that wants Health and Safety throughout improved.

The reason?

One example: Workers cleaning out the fuel tanks within aircraft complained re the fumes that were given off. They were unprotected. The Organisation determined NOT to listen. (Claim$ expected).

lunarchick - 10:18pm Sep 6, 2001 EST (#8581 of 8595)
lunarchick@www.com

Noted here(slow opener) a goddess Concordia ... she'll be pleased to note that the Concord_e is ready to fly again. Not so those close to the runway who believe the noisy dirty plane should be scrapped, and the money used to build modern, cleaner, quieter planes.

gisterme - 02:38am Sep 7, 2001 EST (#8582 of 8595)

rshowalter wrote: ( rshowalter 9/6/01 6:24am ): "...When Turner gave his money, did he know how close Sam Nunn is to Kissinger and Wesley Clark and other people who do not communicate well with Russians, and who have an interest in glorifying, justifying, sanitizing, perpetuating, and profiting from the Cold War, and the arrangements built in America to fight the Cold War?..."

Do they Robert? How do you know? I think you're publishing assumptions built on the foundations of your own bias. It seems to me that the Cold War might have ended much differently if the US had just decided "not to play". Do you disagree? But, let's imagine for a moment that that's the way it happened...

If the US could have somehow avoided the Cold War , say by isolating itself, or Stalin dies in 1945, something like that...this would be a much different world today, wouldn't it? We probably wouldn't have these fantastic PCs, the internet, interstate freeways, GPS...a real space station...and all the other "miracles" we take for granted daily. Take pause for a moment and think seriously about that, Robert...

Without the Cold War, what would have been the motivation for all that technological advancement? Would it have even happened? Sure, technological progress does seem inevitable; but, although preparation for battle has always been the spearhead of technical innovation, even since the days of our stone-chipping, hunter-gatherer anscestors, never throughout all history has there been such a burst of technological advancement as has occured during and since WWII. That war put the fear of God into us and in my view, the Cold War was all about putting a final end to it (while managing to survive). But what a technological stimulant it was! Without that injection of "techno-motivation", I believe things technological would likely have proceeded at a much slower pace. Semiconductors and integrated circuits might not have even been invented yet. These PCs we use every day would most likely still be many years in the future. If you hypothesized about "technology bubbles" in that world's stock market, people would probably think you were nuts. What do you think? And finally, consider this... The world will still be enjoying the fruits of this technological flurry long after interest in the Cold War, you, I, and these interesting times have been relegated to the dusty volumes of historical archivists... and yes, most likely, by that time, people in the Balkans will still hate each other's guts...

As far as communicating with the Russians goes, I think you're way overstating your concerns. The Russians aren't porpoises or orcas. A lot more Russians speak english than do native english-speakers speak Russian. I think problems with communication during the Cold War were by choice, not due to some cultural difference or mysterious, unspecfied "understanding barrier". Folks didn't communicate then because they didn't want to. Communication with Russia was constrained to high-level government channels due to the nature of it's closed society. But wait! The news is good! Things have changed and are still changing for the long-term better in Russia. Communication seems quite good these days, thank you very much. :-)

gisterme - 02:46am Sep 7, 2001 EST (#8583 of 8595)

rshowalter wrote: ( 8572 ): "...That feeling of insecurity is wearing off..."

Uh Oh. Beginning to think the tiger is not hungry? :-)

gisterme - 02:53am Sep 7, 2001 EST (#8584 of 8595)

rshowalter wrote ( ): "If the Japanese and the Americans were honest on some key things, the paralysis would simply disappear."

What key things? What paralysis?

"The Russians are digging themselve out of a wrenching, awful mess. But at least they're digging out."

The paralyzed don't dig.

"Not getting themselve mired deeper."

Much to their credit and the benefit of the whole world.

gisterme - 03:08am Sep 7, 2001 EST (#8585 of 8595)

rshowlater wrote( rshowalter 9/6/01 9:06pm ): "We aren't Gods. We have to check ."

I certainly agree with your first statement, Robert; but, if we already know we aren't Gods, then why do we have to check ? :-)

gisterme - 03:08am Sep 7, 2001 EST (#8586 of 8595)

'Nite all!

(9 following messages)

New York Times on the Web Forums Science Missile Defense