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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?

lunarchick - 05:01pm Sep 20, 2001 EST (#9538 of 9541)
lunarchick@www.com

Russia America Sercurty Council : cooperate re nuclear issues. http://www.ransac.org/

rshowalter - 05:01pm Sep 20, 2001 EST (#9539 of 9541)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Discussions with emphasis on gisterme's very extensive and revealing postings. One may ask, what knowledge, what assumptions, and what sympathies and perceptions are consistent with what gisterme says?

MD7658 rshowalter 7/31/01 5:35pm

Directories of postings by gisterme (each linked to 30 postings by gisterme.

MD7659 rshowalter 7/31/01 5:36pm ... MD7660 rshowalter 7/31/01 5:36pm
MD7661 rshowalter 7/31/01 5:37pm ... MD7662 rshowalter 7/31/01 5:38pm
MD7663 rshowalter 7/31/01 5:38pm ... MD7664 rshowalter 7/31/01 5:39pm
MD7665 rshowalter 7/31/01 5:40pm ... MD7666 rshowalter 7/31/01 6:51pm

There have been many postings by gisterme since.

Some very key ones have involved the question of checking of the technical feasibility of missile defense, in terms of the "breakthroughs" or "miracles" the program asks for, as compared to what could be done on the basis of the open literature. Some of the exchanges have been salty, but in my view, also useful.

MD7009 rshowalter 7/13/01 2:07pm ... MD7010 rshowalter 7/13/01 2:11pm

MD7144 rshowalter 7/17/01 7:13pm

MD8980 rshowalter 9/13/01 7:22pm ... MD8981 rshowalter 9/13/01 7:33pm
MD8982 rshowalter 9/13/01 7:34pm ... MD8993 rshowalter 9/13/01 7:34pm
MD8984 rshowalter 9/13/01 7:37pm ... MD8985 rshowalter 9/13/01 7:41pm

Given what has happened, this posting seems especially apt to me, at a time when forging alliances and communities is so important.
MD7144 rshowalter 7/17/01 7:13pm

rshowalter - 05:03pm Sep 20, 2001 EST (#9540 of 9541)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

These postings and the issues they treat connect clearly, I believe, to the questions raised explicitly and implicitly in NYT pieces like these recent ones.

. World Leaders List Conditions on Cooperation by PATRICK E. TYLER and JANE PERLEZ http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/19/international/19DIPL.html

. Old Ruses, New Barbarians by MAUREEN DOWD http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/19/opinion/19DOWD.html ... "What's the sense of rushing to create a $60 billion defense shield to protect against a Trojan horse?"

. The Modernity of Evil by MAUREEN DOWD http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/16/opinion/16DOWD.html "We have been jolted by the terror inflicted by a handful of guys with box cutters and plastic knives. Can Bush, Cheney, Rummy and Condi move past the cold war attitude and Star Wars obsession that has alienated the countries we will need to help us fight an enemy too shadowy to be stopped by a shield?"

Why, especially, alienate our allies, and dissipate our limited military assets, on plans that can't work?

We have real security needs, and can't afford to waste resources on fantasies, especially fantasies that are, by now, very corrupt.

lunarchick - 05:04pm Sep 20, 2001 EST (#9541 of 9541)
lunarchick@www.com

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