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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.

almarst2003 - 09:13pm Mar 29, 2003 EST (# 10730 of 10762)

Former cabinet minister Robin Cook has launched an angry attack on the war in Iraq and called on Tony Blair to bring UK combat units home.

Mr Cook - who resigned as Leader of the House of Commons in protest at the decision to launch hostilities without international agreement - denounced the campaign as "bloody and unnecessary". http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/2899621.stm

A VOICE IN A WILDERNESS.

jorian319 - 09:19pm Mar 29, 2003 EST (# 10731 of 10762)

You're reaching, alarmst. From your own link:

"The Ba'athist Party has got a grip of the city," said one military official. "The people are scared of us but they are more scared of them. They are trying to stop them from leaving.

Like I said...

"People are too afraid to come out of their homes" ...

Afraid they're going to be shot by Brits/Americans? NO! Afraid they'll be shot if they don't make angry gestures.

I see four Iraqi soldiers in olive-green uniforms sitting in a doorway, their weapons lying across their knees. At their side is a box overflowing with tomatoes; one tosses the fruit haphazardly into the road.

Sounds reeeal conducive to getting citizens to voice their true opinion if it is pro-war. </sarcasm>

As he checks vehicles, L/Cpl Ryan Robinson reaches inside one to calm a sobbing mother. "We need to help these people, to reassure them," he says, clearly moved by their plight. "They are scared of everyone - fear is their norm now."

Hear anything like that about the Ba'ath party thugs?

If that link is supposed to support a case that we will "face a deadly determination of a people who are fighting for their homeland", it fails miserably.

almarst2003 - 09:20pm Mar 29, 2003 EST (# 10732 of 10762)

jorian319 - 08:30pm Mar 29, 2003 EST (# 10728 of 10730)

The NewsMax is hardly a source of intelligent information on-pair with Foxi News.

Assuming one is looking for intelligent information.

jorian319 - 09:32pm Mar 29, 2003 EST (# 10733 of 10762)

CNN.com - Top US official: Iraq has executed some POWs - Mar. 27 ... ... In one case, an Iraqi woman was hanged after she waved to coalition forces, Pace said. "I've never seen anything like this," he said. ... www.cnn.com/2003/US/03/27/sprj.irq.pows.executed/ - 41k - Mar 28, 2003

Alamst - don't hold your breath waiting for the warm expressed welcome that might defuse your anger, which is supposedly sympathetic with the Iraqi people.

almarst2003 - 09:33pm Mar 29, 2003 EST (# 10734 of 10762)

jorian,

As I pointed out, one or none of us may see the "elefant".

From the same link:

"The younger men look sullen and angry. Few speak English but one, his face streaked with dust and dirt, holds up a fist, brandishing it above his head. An older man speaks angrily to him, pulling his hand down. The young man's eyes smoulder with hatred. "Enemy," is all he can say in English."

[British] military official who "is believed to have operated alongside them:

"People are too afraid to come out of their homes. They don't know who is friend, who is foe. Water and food is scarce, there is no electricity. No one is starving yet, but supplies are running very, very low."

One Basra resident who made it to the bridge, Raad Sead, 51, refused to believe that the Iraqis inside the city were firing on the refugees. "They are firing at the army, at the aggressors," he insisted.

He begged in vain to be allowed back into Basra, where his children were. Capt Robert Sandford shook his head. "It is difficult to get into the mindset of people who shell their own people," he said. "The situation has been very tense here and we have had incoming fire every day. It simply isn't safe to let these people into the city."

IN WAR BELIEF IS MORE IMPORTAND THEN TRUTH.

jorian319 - 09:34pm Mar 29, 2003 EST (# 10735 of 10762)

The NewsMax is hardly a source of intelligent information on-pair with Foxi News.

Same (or similar) story was run in a plethora of media. Since you and Robert seem to like The Guardian (talk about bias!) go look at their version.

Then go read your own link!!

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