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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 - 04:51pm Mar 25, 2003 EST (# 10484 of 10508)
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.

I don't know what's in this proposal, but the idea of making peace now - in ways that meet the reasonable needs of all concerned, looking at the situation as it is - makes great sense - and if it could be successfully accomplished it would be a great step forward for the world.

Saudis Make Peace Proposal to U.S., Iraq By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 11:44 a.m. ET http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-War-Saudi-Iraq.html

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) -- Saudi Arabia has contacted the United States and Iraq with a peace proposal, the kingdom's foreign minister told reporters Tuesday. He said he was awaiting a response.

. . . .

``We'll be knocking on all doors to bring peace,'' Saud said Tuesday. ``It's too important to leave to just the gods of war to determine where this thing ends.''

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The conditions ought to be in place for a win-win resolution - in terms of what the nations and people involved can reasonably expect.

We're at a time where international law is being negotiated into being, and it would be a great milestone if this could resolve decently. Everybody involved now knows that everybody else will fight, can fight - and can impose costs that the parties care about.

Everybody knows some key things about what will happen if the fight goes on. Some of the things that will happen will be very expensive from many, many points of view.

If a deal can be struck - it should be struck quickly. If, at the end, Saddam and his entourage left - decently provided for and able to go on with their lives - and the Iraqi government could remain intact - subject to some international supervision by the UN - that would be a fine thing - and the valid interests of the United States and the UK could be well served, too. The interests of the EU, Russia, and China would be well served. The reasonable interests of the Iraqi people, and of Islam, would be well served. Interests broadly backed by Christians of most persuasions would be well served.

A resolution that made a clear reality of these words from Iraq States Its Case by MOHAMMED ALDOURI http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/17/opinion/17ALDO.html would be a historical triumph. Here are those words from Aldouri:

"After so many years of fear from war, the threat of war and suffering, the people of Iraq and their government in Baghdad are eager for peace. We have no intention of attacking anyone, now or in the future, with weapons of any kind. If we are attacked, we will surely defend ourselves with all means possible.

Such a resolution could be good politics, by sensible standards, in terms of what anyone could reasonably hope, for virtually everybody concerned.

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Too much to hope for? Perhaps. It would be a strange thing - so see a rational solution. But, these days, some strange things are happening.

almarst2003 - 05:01pm Mar 25, 2003 EST (# 10485 of 10508)

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The first contracts for rebuilding post-war Iraq have been awarded, and Vice President Dick Cheney's old employer, Halliburton Co., is one of the early winners.

http://money.cnn.com/2003/03/25/news/companies/war_contracts/index.htm

Not entirely unexpected.

almarst2003 - 05:07pm Mar 25, 2003 EST (# 10486 of 10508)

Guess who said that:

"What we should do is go in there and kill every last soul,"

No. Not Bin Ladden.

http://www.nypost.com/commentary/71771.htm

dccougar - 07:36pm Mar 25, 2003 EST (# 10487 of 10508)
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion but not his own facts.

almarst2003 - 05:07pm Mar 25, 2003 EST

What would you expect a U.S. soldier to say upon hearing the news that U.S. prisoners of war had been summarily executed?

How do you expect U.S. soldiers to react when Iraqis wave white flags to surrender and then suddenly pull up their weapons and start killing Americans?

Sgt Brady's angry comment seems a little more understandable in such circumstances, it seems to me.

How do you react to such Iraqi tactics and atrocities?

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