New York Times on the Web Forums
Science
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.
(10904 previous messages)
rshow55
- 02:11pm Apr 1, 2003 EST (#
10905 of 10909)
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.
These days, as in the past, people are mostly
fighting about ideas - and in many, many, many places,
those ideas are bad ideas in the simple, stark sense
that they don't fit what they purport to - what they are
supposed to.
That means there is a lot of room for improvement -
and, within reason, and subject to exceptions, some just, some
tragic - there's room for win-win solutions.
Solutions that would make sense to most of the
professional military people in the world - if they looked at
facts on the ground - and the lies that have been told, and
the mistakes that have been made, on all sides.
lchic
- 02:11pm Apr 1, 2003 EST (#
10906 of 10909) ~~~~ It got understood and exposed
~~~~
Media - "" I have perhaps caught that old vice called
"professional deformation", which makes a journalist either
completely insensitive to his subject or too sensitive to it.
In both cases, he would not be able to see the event with the
required detachment, which may subsequently induce him to the
distortion of the reality. In times like theses, we may very
well fall into one of these traps and, either be robotized so
that we report or analyze or comment without really feeling
what we are talking about, or get so extremely involved in our
job, so passionately concerned with its human side (be it
people's sufferance or happiness, courage, or cowardice,
sacrifice or selfishness, etc.), that we get overwhelmed with
an unbalanced and necessarily partial view, without even
noticing it. I am however hoping that I did not yet reach such
a stage ...........
........ 2- If Saddam is not credible in his own country -
not to speak of the Arab world in whose summits he did not
show up since the eighties-, so who is resisting the allied
forces right now? The people of Iraq? This is hardly the case.
We would be more inspired to say: the resistance has been
organized by the "popular army". For those who do not know,
this is the militia of the Baath party, which Saddam himself
founded since he was the second man in Iraq after the
President Ahmed Hassan al Bakr, well before he founded the
famous Republican guard. There was a Baathist theory since the
seventies about the "popular army".
... 6- It is not a war between Saddam and Bush, for
although those who demonstrate in the streets generally shout
their slogans against Bush, they do not mean that they support
Saddam either. Just observe that the latter's name never
appears in the slogans. He is merely ignored by the
demonstrators in the Western cities to the benefice of Iraq.
It is peace in Iraq that they claim, not peace for Saddam. But
is peace still possible with Saddam in power?
http://www.amin.org/eng/hichem_karoui/2003/mar25.html
fredmoore
- 02:17pm Apr 1, 2003 EST (#
10907 of 10909)
In an attempt to break the depression and negativity to
closure on this thread, I note that Psychological Operations
are coming into the forefront of war news. This is positive.
However I cannot see the COHERENCE that ought to be
possible.
The way to achieve maximum COHERENCE is to touch all
participants each time a psi op is launched. Recent media
images of night flares over Basra do this to an extent but
there has to be more immediacy. This immediacy can be achieved
by a recognisable musical accompaniment to psi ops which can
break into the media and armed forces radio frequencies at the
same time it is heard by civilians and troops in the field. A
perfect symbolic song is the Lionel Richie track 'Se La'. The
regae beat and the lyrics reinforce the coalition's mission of
liberation with a sense of celebration. The whole world bears
a responsibility to ensure a swift end and a positive outcome
to this war. Instead of hapless negativity borne of being out
of touch with the conflict and its true purpose all people
should have the opportunity to be part of positive psi ops as
they occur and at those times to share a positive thought for
the Iraqi civilians involved.
So lets get some coherence .... bring out the sound trucks
and remember: Many hands make light work and many minds make
human laser work.
lchic
- 02:17pm Apr 1, 2003 EST (#
10908 of 10909) ~~~~ It got understood and exposed
~~~~
Quote "" In this moment, there is such a cacophony
everywhere that leaves you with the amazing impression that
either we are all lying or all blind. "" Hichem Karoui http://www.hichemkaroui.com/
(1 following message)
New York Times on the Web Forums
Science
Missile Defense
|