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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.

rshow55 - 12:52pm Mar 16, 2003 EST (# 10068 of 10072)
Can we do a better job of finding truth? YES. Click "rshow55" for some things Lchic and I have done and worked for on this thread.

Leaders are meeting under tense, important circumstances. : Cheney Says the U.S. Is Nearing End of Diplomatic Efforts By REUTERS http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/16/international/16SHELL-CHENEY.html

It has been a long time, and there has been an enormous amount of effort, since

Iraq States Its Case by MOHAMMED ALDOURI http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/17/opinion/17ALDO.html , a piece that bears reading.

Has Iraq "thumbed its nose" or accomodated inspections the best it reasonably can? It is possible, based on experiences to date - to "smell a rat" - but there are some very different views.

Power is invariably personal. Even if there is "something very wrong" with responses - it matters what that something is. Power is personal. It matters how responsible and connected to basics Bush is - and it matters whether or not Saddam is dead - or a front.

Here are quotes from Berle:

Power is invariably personal. However attained, it can be exercised only by the decision and act of an individual.

No collective category, no class, no group of any kind weilds power or can use it. Another factor must be present. That of organization. The collective group must put itself together, must develop formal or informal structure - must establish stated and unstated rules by and through which power to decide and act is assigned to someone and, as a rule,, distributed through a hierarchy of subordinates.

Without this organization . . . no collective group can or ever does act. . .

In the hands or mind of an individual, the impulse toward power is not inherently limited. Limits are imposed by extraneous fact and usually also by conscience and intellectual restraint. Capacity to make others do what you wish knows only those limitations. Either you cannot or you consciously decide that you will not. . .

Normal individuals have a high content of internal restraint based on a system of ideas and morals in which they were brought up or to which they agree. Power holders know this; hence their concern with systems of ideas and of morals. To extend power beyond the reach of their fist, they must foster a situation where the people within scope of their power act predictably, will follow instructions, will maintain a degree of order. If need be, or course, order can be produced by force. The mother knows that, in case of ultimates, she can spank her smaller children. She can do htis only occasionally; domestic order must hold together most of the time without that resort. Because of this as well as because of moral conviction, she tries to instill principles of obedience, consideration, regard for orderly life. So, in different application, does every power holder in great or small affairs.

For all sorts of reasons, it is absolutely imperative that Bush, Blair and Aznar present credible ideas that they can explain - and that many agree to. They cannot spank the leaders of the other nations of the world - nor exert anything like enough force to maintain order in other ways if they do not have willing agreement on many things.

It is also of fundamental importance for tactical and strategic reasons, and for moral reasons, to find out whether Saddam Hussien is alive or dead. That point has been discussed on this thread in links set out in 10014 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@28.t2yPa48s501.2180511@.f28e622/11559

It is cheap to find out that answer - and far too expensive to get it wrong.

On decision making as an "investment decision": 5591 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@28.t2yPa48s501.2180511@.f28e622/6992 ... 5592 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@28.t2yPa48s501.2180511@.f28e622/6993

almarst2003 - 01:11pm Mar 16, 2003 EST (# 10069 of 10072)

preparation of world public opinion for potential heavy loss of life among the Iraqi population in the event of US and British troops having to fight house-to-house in urban areas. - http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1045511656838

almarst2003 - 01:19pm Mar 16, 2003 EST (# 10070 of 10072)

Blair: War by Wednesday http://www.news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=318902003

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