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Missile Defense

Technology has always found its greatest consumer in a nation's war and defense efforts. Since the last attempts at a "Star Wars" defense system, has technology changed considerably enough to make the latest Missile Defense initiatives more successful? Can such an application of science be successful? Is a militarized space inevitable, necessary or impossible?

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almarst-2001 - 10:56am Mar 11, 2002 EST (#379 of 387)

Washington has a love affair with terror - http://www.nctimes.com/news/2002/20020310/60236.html

almarst-2001 - 11:53am Mar 11, 2002 EST (#380 of 387)

BEIJING (Reuters) - China issued its annual report on human rights in the United States on Monday, accusing Washington of turning a blind eye to abuses in its own land while criticizing other countries for theirs. - http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml;jsessionid=CB4TKK3YTI1FMCRBAE0CFFAKEEATGIWD?type=worldnews&StoryID=683061#

The report by the Information Office of the State Council, China's cabinet, listed evidence of police abuses, poverty, racial discrimination and lack of personal safety in the United States, the official Xinhua news agency said.

It also accused Washington of "wantonly infringing" on the sovereignty of other nations through military operations and stationing U.S. forces overseas, Xinhua said.

And it criticized the administration of President Bush for withdrawing from the Kyoto Protocol on cutting greenhouse gases.

China releases the report every year in response to a State Department report on global human rights conditions, which usually accuses China of widespread abuses. The U.S. report came out last week.

"Once again the United States, assuming the role of 'world judge of human rights' has distorted human rights conditions in many countries and regions in the world, including China, and accused them of human rights violations, all the while turning a blind eye to its own human rights-related problems," the Chinese report said.

"In fact it is right in the United States where serious human rights violations exist."

Human rights is one of the most sensitive issues in relations between China and the United States.

Washington has urged Beijing repeatedly to protect civil liberties and religious freedom. China rejects U.S. criticism and says it is more important to protect its 1.3 billion people's rights to food, shelter and clothing.

almarst-2001 - 12:00pm Mar 11, 2002 EST (#381 of 387)

Would Orwell believe?

Present-day reporting is locked into a zone that excludes unauthorized ironies. It simply accepts that the U.S. government can keep making war on "terror" by using high-tech weapons that inevitably terrorize large numbers of people. According to routine news accounts, just about any measures deemed appropriate by top officials in Washington fit snugly under the rubric of an ongoing war that may never end. - http://www.fair.org/media-beat/020307.html

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