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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 - 05:47pm Sep 16, 2001 EST (#9203 of 9213)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Thomas Friedman and Maureen Dowd have expressed strong and repeated doubts about the responsiblity and even the sanity of this administration's missile defense proposals, and these statements have deeply influenced me.
MD8102 rshowalter 8/24/01 12:03pm ... MD8103 rshowalter 8/24/01 12:04pm

And very strong reservations continue to be expressed.

The Modernity of Evil by MAUREEN DOWD http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/16/opinion/16DOWD.html

It makes sense to get some key facts about missile defense checked , not only because the issue is important in itself, but because missile defense, and the motivations for it, link very closely with all the issues of military security which now concern us.

It makes no sense, and is not in the national interest, to support junk that cannot possibly work for clear reasons.

lunarchick - 06:12pm Sep 16, 2001 EST (#9204 of 9213)
lunarchick@www.com

Hot Heads or Cool Heads ?

Tony Blair is calling for cool heads, thinking heads, and evidence -- reasonable for a legal eagle.

lunarchick - 06:14pm Sep 16, 2001 EST (#9205 of 9213)
lunarchick@www.com

Showalter, Is America still shell shocked ?

lunarchick - 06:17pm Sep 16, 2001 EST (#9206 of 9213)
lunarchick@www.com

I was impressed with the extract of the BBC's Talking Point i heard last night. It was a synthesis and compilation of the viewpoints of 30,000 people world wide.

Tragic Tuesday has affected 35 countries. Germany has almost 300 missing. But the Germans aren't calling for WAR .. more for logic and process.

rshowalter - 06:20pm Sep 16, 2001 EST (#9207 of 9213)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Blair made excellent points when I saw him on television today. And came across well as a person.

We face a number of linked issues, many of which have been discussed in detail on this board. And radically improved chances for peace appear to be possible -- but there is a key "showstopper."

It is that the American's won't, or can't, admit to some key facts, and show some absolutely essential kinds of empathy for people in the rest of the world. Too often, the language Friedman applied to Henry Kissinger applies to well to America in its relationship to others.

We should cower from deserving these words - - - that we

" make Machiavelli seem like one of the Angels of Mercy. . . "

We should change some things. It wouldn't be that hard, for the nation as a whole, and we'd all, with a very few exceptions, be safer if we did.

But there's a question. Has a great deal of America been subverted ?

There are some very good reasons to worry about that. Gisterme have been discussing them, since MD2999-3000 -- and some of that dialog is chilling.

We need to reduce, and if possible get rid of, terrorism in the world.

Including kinds that reasonable people, from all over the world, think we practice.

rshowalter - 06:21pm Sep 16, 2001 EST (#9208 of 9213)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Logic and process are what we need.

We need violence to be controlled . . . not to careen out of control.

And the world should study, carefully, the reasons it has to trust the judgement of the Bush administration, based on the things that administration has said and done.

lunarchick - 06:22pm Sep 16, 2001 EST (#9209 of 9213)
lunarchick@www.com

Codes of behaviour for civil existence are seen in
The Golden Rule.
Do unto others as you would be done unto.

The old testament had Moses & the two tablets enscribed with the 10 commandments of behaviour suited to small towns and sheep herders.

The Moslim development was supposedly a quality refinement on those ten. Not sure here re their initial codes. May check them out later.

The development of 'STANDARDS' has been incremental, continually advancing us towards dealing carefully with many and varied needs and wants as society develops and is able to sustain them.

lunarchick - 06:25pm Sep 16, 2001 EST (#9210 of 9213)
lunarchick@www.com

For things not to career out of control ... one has to trust the judgement of the Bwsh administration ....

That's a call the rest of the world might not follow/understand, hasn't the Bwsh Admin acted whacko_Crazy ever since it came into being - Patriot Showalter!?!

rshowalter - 06:25pm Sep 16, 2001 EST (#9211 of 9213)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

I think that the dialog between us and gisterme is very, very interesting - - and contains both reasons for hope, and clear warnings that I believe nation states all over the world should study and take seriously. Especially in terms of the hopes, and concerns, expressed in the links cited in MD2088_89 rshowalter 4/8/01 8:30am , that involve so much careful thought, and so much well explained reason for concern, on the part of almarst.

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