New York Times on the Web Forums Science

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.

jorian319 - 10:29am Mar 26, 2003 EST (# 10533 of 10534)

I move that we destroy Saddam and all evil dictators who rule by the sword!

Would that we could do so covertly, to avoid the corruption of credit-takers and the reprisals of those who stand to benefit from the continuance of brutality.

Some things never change, though. Apparently the running Rshow sermon of this forum is one of them. I rarely read those posts, because he (I think of Ichic as his alter-ego, and suspect they are the same person) rarely responds directly to anyone else, and he regularly relies on such dubious sources as The Guardian. It looks like a loop-tape for all its repetition.

Alarmst is another story - I scan his/her posts occasionally just to reconfirm lock-step conformance to the popular impression being marketed by the global left. Always hoping to see an evolving attitude, usually disappointed.

rshow55 - 10:56am Mar 26, 2003 EST (# 10534 of 10534)
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.

Lchic and I aren't the same person. You can tell - she's much smarter and more graceful than I am. Better connected, too.

Buck Showalter surely knows a lot more than Bob Showalter - but I'm sure he's too busy to talk to me. Some Showalter's are pretty smart, anyway.

Almarst's pieces are often important.

And if the Bush administration stays committed to lies - very many of the good things about the US (and Mazza is right that there are good things) will be devalued.

You can have great love and respect for America - and not think that Paul Krugman has anything at all wrong in his columns.

One thing I'm sure Buck Showalter knows is that you have to deal with situations as they are - or you can't possibly do well. The modern world is facing a major challenge in Sayyid Qutb and his followers.

The Philosopher of Islamic Terror By PAUL BERMAN http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/23/magazine/23GURU.html

To deal with that challenge - we have to deal with ideas at the level where they are - the level of ideas.

We ought to do so. We'd still need force sometimes - but we'd need it less, and could use it more effectively. Effectively enough to meet the decent, valid needs of the United States - and other nations all over the world.

Sometimes, jorian , sermons have their uses - and repetition is indispensible, as well.

I've repeated sermon a good deal, for instance:

. When the Foundations are Shaking by Dr. James Slatton 11/19/2000 River Road Church Richmond Virginia http://www.mrshowalter.net/sermon.html

It is a wonderful piece of work - and an exemplar of a kind of religion that is fully compatible with every reasonable kind or modernity - and I think will still be centuries from now.

New York Times on the Web Forums Science Missile Defense