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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 - 11:21pm Apr 22, 2002 EST (#1688 of 1703)
$US10,000,000 x 366 /$US3.66 billion p.a. - sweated Arab-American-tax assists Middle East beat-up!

"Phew" caught-up ... you guys were running on ahead without me!

Saw an interesting piece in TheAustralian 22Ap p11 written by a couple of guys from 'The Middle East Forum - Philadelphia' who say that ...

were Israel to withdraw ... it might be seen as a sign of weakness ... and quote ..

"Someday, when the Palestinians have given up on their determination to eliminate the Jewish state, Israel can and should pull back from the territories it won in 1967. But such a step should not even be contemplated, much less discussed in negotiations, before the Palestinians and Arabs have proven themselves willing to accept Israels's existenc, and then actually live harmoniously with it for an extended period. This longeterm porject will require decades. How ever slow, it is the only way to resolve the conflict; there are no short cuts.

^{Did Israel 'win' territories in 1967 or did it conjure up war and 'steal' territories.}

Hang these 'territories' in a gallery and they'd go back to their owners!

lchic - 11:49pm Apr 22, 2002 EST (#1689 of 1703)
$US10,000,000 x 366 /$US3.66 billion p.a. - sweated Arab-American-tax assists Middle East beat-up!

MY take on the Global Village is this :-

almarst-2001 - 04:32pm Apr 22, 2002 EST (#1667 of 1687)

On Global Village.

The main questions to ask are:

1. Are we engaged in a COMPETITION or COOPERATION or BOTH?

^{The answer has to be competition. Economies find what they are best at, where they get their markets and returns, and stay ahead of the 'game'.}

^{Every aspect is competitive.}

Every nation has it's strengths - and weaknesses.
^{To be competitive highly educated 'can do' workforce is needed that is open to ideas, can accept change, can input ideas, and have an overview of the whole business with an eye on future trends.
Catching the wave is important, being ahead of the wave is clever (but trends are not easy to predict) - new technology brings unforeseen change.
Areas where wages are low have an attractiveness for industry location providing : the area is stable, the logisitics are good, there is a legal-commerical framework in place, the products are of a high standard - Quality.}

^{Village might equate with 'perfect market' where supply of goods governs price which perfectly accommodates demand. A village may have a sense of realism - re cropping and harvesting.}

The function of the Global Village should be to incrementally improve the quality of goods on offer, to develop base industries ... and here's the important part .. that continually UPGRADE their product line.

Cheap labour works to satisfy the more simply met needs ... as that economy develops, human capital improves, financial-capital for expansion becomes more readily available ... the zone moves onwards and upwards. There are plenty of other cheap labour zones that can then turn out the basics of life.

The IT globe enables any location to offer IT type services worldwide.

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lchic - 12:02am Apr 23, 2002 EST (#1690 of 1703)
$US10,000,000 x 366 /$US3.66 billion p.a. - sweated Arab-American-tax assists Middle East beat-up!

Amnesty demands war crimes inquiry into Jenin invasion

Israel accused of 'very serious human rights abuses' in refugee camp,
while skirmishes continue at Basilica of the Nativity

mazza9 - 12:23am Apr 23, 2002 EST (#1691 of 1703)
Louis Mazza

lchic:

I asked before and I'll ask again. Is targeting civilians a war crime? Is killing men, women and children who do not wear the military unifrom of their country a war crime?

I fully expect you to not answer this question.

LouMazza

manjumicha2001 - 02:08am Apr 23, 2002 EST (#1692 of 1703)

Uhh...Wan't that what we have always been supposed to do in all those wars.....bomb the hell out of enemy cities, including civilians in them? I mean any German, Italian and Japanese civilians who were fire bombed in WWII would understand that, wouldn't they? So Isreal bombs Lebanese and Arab cities (yes, with civilians in them) as Pals and Arabs bomb Israeli cities (except in Pals' case, their mode of operations are quite inefficient).

manjumicha2001 - 02:14am Apr 23, 2002 EST (#1693 of 1703)

I think we can solve the Pal terrorism issue by giving them B2 bombers with daisy-cutters and they can start bombing Israeli cities as IDF bombs Pal cities....and there ! no more terrorism for Bush to worry about.

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