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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 - 11:40am Mar 22, 2003 EST (# 10320 of 10325)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

War - Iraq - email virus "W-32 / Ganda-A"

"" computer virus by e-mail

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s812461.htm

Experts say the bug named "W-32 / Ganda-A" is a worm that takes the form of a message, luring users into activating it through their interest in the war.

If opened, it will replicate by sending itself to addresses found on the computer's Microsoft Outlook e-mail files.

The experts say the worm will also try to kill off anti-virus files on the computer's hard disk, and may cause the Microsoft Word program to crash.

_______________

"" War conquered sex yesterday and became the most popular search term in Britain, Internet provider Freeserve said.

A spokesperson for the telecommunications company said war in Iraq seemed to have grabbed the attention of Britons, lowering their libidos and their interest in Britney Spears and travel.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s812933.htm

fredmoore - 11:47am Mar 22, 2003 EST (# 10321 of 10325)

An effective Kyoto Alternative Energy treaty would link all countries

1. In a 10 year plan

2. With countries providing funds on a percentage of GDP basis

3. For an international research and implementation program for:

A. Converting major power stations to dry rock geothermal

B. Developing and implementin Thermoelectric fabrics (eg polythiophene) for urban and agricultural power generation.

C. Developing space based solar collectors and microwave transmission of power from space

D. Terminating every stormwater and major farm runoff in an engineered wetland.

This Kyoto Alternative Energy protocol would be profit generating, whilst producing clean, sustainable electric power for all nations. It would also generate cooperation and potential for peace among all nations.

As for the current CO2 limiting treaty. Well, this has already generated mistrust among nations, downgrades profits in developed countries and doesn't focus on alternative power sources to fossil fuels.

The Kyoto CO2 limiting treaty is ill-conceived for the reasons I have stated. I say it is absurd to accept its many shortcomings when a Kyoto Alternative Energy treaty would provide so many integrated and positive advantages for the whole world and a sustainable pathway for future generations.

lchic - 11:50am Mar 22, 2003 EST (# 10322 of 10325)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

Fisk - Bubbles of fire tore into the sky above Baghdad Robert Fisk in Baghdad 21 March 2003

It was like a door slamming deep beneath the surface of the earth; a pulsating, minute-long roar of sound that brought President George Bush's supposed crusade against "terrorism" to Baghdad last night.

There was a thrashing of tracer on the horizon from the Baghdad air defences – the Second World War-era firepower of old Soviet anti-aircraft guns – and then a series of tremendous vibrations that had the ground shaking under our feet. Bubbles of fire tore into the sky around the Iraqi capital, dark red at the base, golden at the top.

Saddam Hussein, of course, has vowed to fight to the end but in Baghdad last night, there was a truly Valhalla quality about the violence. Within minutes, looking out across the Tigris river I could see pin-pricks of fire as bombs and cruise missiles exploded on to Iraq's military and communications centres and, no doubt, upon the innocent as well.

The first of the latter, a taxi driver, was blown to pieces in the first American raid on Baghdad yesterday morning. No one here doubted that the dead would include civilians. Tony Blair said just that in the Commons debate this week but I wondered, listening to this storm of fire across Baghdad last night, if he has any conception of what it looks like, what it feels like, or of the fear of those innocent Iraqis who are, as I write this, cowering in their homes and basements.

Not many hours ago, I talked to an old Shia Muslim lady in a poor area of Baghdad. She was dressed in traditional black with a white veil over her head. I pressed her over and over again as to what she felt. In the end, she just said: "I am afraid."

That this is the start of something that will change the face of the Middle East is in little doubt; that it will be successful in the long term is quite another matter.

The sheer violence of it, the howl of air raid sirens and the air-cutting fall of the missiles carried its own political message; not just to President Saddam but to the rest of the world. We are the super-power, those explosions said last night. This is how we do business. This is how we take our revenge for 11 September.

Not even George Bush made any pretence in the last days of peace to link Iraq with those international crimes against humanity in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. But some of the fire that you could see bubbling up through the darkness around Baghdad last night did remind me of other flames, those which consumed the World Trade Centre. In a strange way, the Americans were – without the permission of the United Nations, with most of the world against them – acting out their rage with an eerily fiery consummation.

Iraq cannot withstand this for long. President Saddam may claim, as he does, that his soldiers can defeat technology with courage. I doubt it. For what fell upon Iraq last night – and I witnessed just an infinitely small part of this festival of violence – was as militarily awesome as it was politically terrifying. The crowds outside my hotel stood and stared into the sky at the flashing anti-aircraft bursts, awed by their power.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=389208

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/story.jsp?story=389113 http://www.independent.co.uk/

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