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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 - 12:31am Apr 13, 2002 EST (#1322 of 1330)

When Gisterme said that Congress was the house of the people , i read it
THEE People ...
people like Gisterme who'd hardly know what
'the people' are :)

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I still have concerns ... Powell is out in the Middle East without a clue on the true history of that zone ... if the base factors aren't in place then people say things to the worldwide media that don't do them justice.

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It's my contention that the US Administration/President are sufferring from a large dose of 'Paradigm Shift' .. the fact that they aren't seeing history in true perspective means they're stumped and don't know how to respond to the challenge in the MEast.

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Doesn't Showalter exhalt us to peel back, delve back, sift back, look back, search and find truth.

Doesn't he say that people don't like the truth to be presented to them - scream and look away - because they'd have to re-adjust their heads to accommodate it.

Yet once they do - then the big problem out there can actually be solved.

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I think this is what's happening with respect to the way the American-z are dealing with the MEast -- it hasn't been fixed in half a century -- because they aren't seeing it for what it is, and until they do the solutions won't be the right solutions!

lchic - 01:36am Apr 13, 2002 EST (#1323 of 1330)

The Name's BOND ... James Bond

Silicon Valley's Spy Game

The C.I.A. had just founded an unusual venture-capital firm called In-Q-Tel, and the agency wanted Louie to be the C.E.O. ''The 'Q' stands for the 'Q' factor -- it's named after the character in James Bond,'' says Louie. In-Q-Tel was the brainchild of George Tenet, the C.I.A. director, who believed that by investing $30 million a year in Internet startups in Silicon Valley, the C.I.A. could encourage the development of cutting-edge technologies that might be useful for national intelligence. Louie's marching orders were to provide venture capital for data-mining technologies that would allow the C.I.A. to monitor and profile potential terrorists as closely and carefully as Amazon monitors and profiles potential customers. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/14/magazine/14TECHNO.html ... terrorists don't fit a consistent profile: you're looking for a needle in a haystack, but the color and the shape of the needle keep changing.

lchic - 01:41am Apr 13, 2002 EST (#1324 of 1330)

C.I.A. director, who believed that by investing $30 million a year in Internet startups in Silicon Valley, the C.I.A. could encourage the development of cutting-edge technologies

Pity there's not the same enthusiasm to invest in projects that can lift the world up by the bootstraps.

gisterme - 03:32am Apr 13, 2002 EST (#1325 of 1330)

lchic 4/13/02 1:36am

"...Louie's marching orders were to provide venture capital for data-mining technologies that would allow the C.I.A. to monitor and profile potential terrorists as closely and carefully as Amazon monitors and profiles potential customers..."

The "Intelligence" in "Central Intellingence Agency" means data mining, you moron. What did you think it meant? Coming from a wannabe data miner like yourself that statement sounds absurd. Your confession of ignorance explains a lot about why you and your idol Robert, are so inept at it.

What would the CIA be doing these days if it weren't monitoring terroritsts? The terrorists are the ones who are killing American civilians, Israeli civilians, African civilians, British civilians, civilians from other places and themselves. Maybe you think the CIA should be monitoring pickle prices instead. I'm sure you wouldn't be complaining about their budget if that's what they were speniding it on. Right? Sheesh!

And to answer your questions about why the New York Times doesn't report the things you think they should, well, I'd say it's because the New York Times is not in the propaganda business and whatever domestic political leanings the good folks there may have on any given day, they're still loyal Americans who are not stupid enough to buy your line of BS. Apparenly you're just not smart enough to realize that. And if you think the NYT won't print your garbage because they're afraid people won't buy their newspaper, well, then you and they have both correctly analyzed the mood of the American people. That's because the American people literally won't buy that BS either.

I'd suggest you try another tack, lchic. The course you're on will run you aground for sure.

gisterme - 03:44am Apr 13, 2002 EST (#1326 of 1330)

rshow55 4/12/02 6:59pm

You've joined lchic in the naivety club Robert. I'm amazed that you'd volutnteer to take on such an onerous credential. At second thought, maybe not. After all, you're very consistant at shooting yourself in the foot, entangling yourself in your own words and in general, destroying your own credibility. So I'm not amazed after all. It's par for the course.

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