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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?

Read Debates, a new Web-only feature culled from Readers' Opinions, published every Thursday.

lchic - 11:53am Mar 15, 2002 EST (#573 of 592)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/furniture/in_depth/world/2002/world_unequal/income_received2_300.gif http://news.bbc.co.uk/furniture/in_depth/world/2002/world_unequal/world_ineq2_300.gif http://news.bbc.co.uk/furniture/in_depth/world/2002/world_unequal/world_poor300.gif http://news.bbc.co.uk/furniture/in_depth/world/2002/world_unequal/poverty87_98_300.gif http://news.bbc.co.uk/furniture/in_depth/world/2002/world_unequal/health_gap300.gif http://news.bbc.co.uk/furniture/in_depth/world/2002/world_unequal/edu_ineq2_300.gif

rshow55 - 12:49pm Mar 15, 2002 EST (#574 of 592)

If people with power actually attended to the points already set out on this web - and saw that they were checked - -a great deal would improve -- and the forces of hope would be considerably stronger. At least we're getting some attention from professionals like Mazza -- who specialize in defocusing - - - and who make the poverty of the "pro missile defense" positions clear ---

MD541-544 rshow55 3/14/02 7:16pm

MD402 rshow55 3/12/02 8:19am

MD84 rshow55 3/2/02 10:52am

You can't get closure in a NYT thread, by format - somebody can always do another posting. But arguments can be clear -- and can be re-organized in formats where umpiring occurs, and high credibility closure IS possible.

Maybe we're moving in that direction. . . . I'm getting some feedback, on that point, from high status channels, that is giving me some occupation . . .

Maybe things can be done that actually fit, even improve, usages in the mass media . . MD173-174 almarst-2001 3/3/02 7:08pm

lchic - 04:12pm Mar 15, 2002 EST (#575 of 592)

Pause and think ........ 'better machine' .... or better 'boondoggle' :)

If the resources devoted to killing were re-diverted to peace .. the 'gaps' could be narrowed giving improved outcomes for world-people.

almarst-2001 - 04:16pm Mar 15, 2002 EST (#576 of 592)

Assuming that people like MAZZA are sincere, I can compare them to a happy bunch on a boat they just build, speeding EFORTLESLY down the river with ever increasing speed ... toward the yet visible waterfall. While some are noticing the closing roar and fiew are seeking the plausable explaination for acceleration, most attribute it to their SUPERIOR SKILLS.

My point is that what is called The Western Civilization, lead today by triumphal USA, is concentraited all its energy and resources on a task of building a BETTER MACHINES and not a BETTER HUMAN BEINGS and SOCIETY.

almarst-2001 - 04:18pm Mar 15, 2002 EST (#577 of 592)

Sorry Lunarchic. I just reworked and reposted it again.

almarst-2001 - 04:28pm Mar 15, 2002 EST (#578 of 592)

"If the resources devoted to killing were re-diverted to peace"

It so happend that the "art of killing" requires the most superior and costly machines.

To redivert the resources would require the change of the direction of this Civilization. Because, unlike Mazza's "team", most of the humans on this planet couldn't care less about Space "tourism". And need food, clean water and air, simple preventive medicine, education, employement and the feeling of ownership over results of their work.

almarst-2001 - 04:56pm Mar 15, 2002 EST (#579 of 592)

The Bishop of Coventry yesterday said that Britain had to accept responsibility for the death and deformity of children in Iraq as a result of allied bombing during and since the Gulf war. - http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,193448,00.html

rshow55 - 05:13pm Mar 15, 2002 EST (#580 of 592)

That is good.

mazza9 - 05:19pm Mar 15, 2002 EST (#581 of 592)
Louis Mazza

Almarst:

"My point is that what is called The Western Civilization, lead today by triumphal USA, is concentraited all its energy and resources on a task of building a BETTER MACHINES and not a BETTER HUMAN BEINGS and SOCIETY"

I don't want to rain on your parade but perfectablity and the human condition are mutually exclusive.

Did the Soviet Union achieve the "new Soviet Man"? Was the NAZI search for the true "Aryan" successful?

The US system is based on Hobbes' philosophy of man's imperfections. The 7 deadly sins are a way of life and there is no answer to the Ted Bundy's, Andrea Yates, or the knucklehead who cut me off in traffic this morning on my drive to work.

We muddle ahead and hope that our efforts have a net positive effect.

LouMazza

almarst-2001 - 05:22pm Mar 15, 2002 EST (#582 of 592)

There is an echo of imperial Rome in Bush's war capital - http://www.guardian.co.uk/bush/story/0,7369,667652,00.html

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