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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.

rshow55 - 06:31pm Apr 3, 2003 EST (# 11023 of 11028)
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.

If people ask what it is they are thinking of when they use words or take actions, and try to get clear about that - we might be able to do better than we'll do otherwise. What fits?

Almarst has his problems with Friedman, and sometimes for reasons that I can sympathize with, but sometimes Friedman does point out things worth noticing. He did in his August 18, 2002 piece Fog of War http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/18/opinion/18FRIE.html?ei=5070&en=ce3476fe1e5ea656&ex=1049432400&pagewanted=print&position=top

"A remarkable news article from Gaza appeared in The Washington Post last week, and it deserved more attention than it got. The article reported that for the past month, the 12 main Palestinian factions had been holding secret talks to determine the "ground rules for their uprising against Israel, trying to agree on such fundamental issues as why they are fighting, what they need to end the conflict and whether suicide bombings are a legitimate weapon."

"Let me repeat that in case you missed it: two years into the Palestinian uprising, Palestinian factions were meeting to determine why they are fighting and whether their means are legitimate.

. . . .

. . . "the Arab and European "friends" of the Palestinians, instead of confronting them on this issue, became their apologists and enablers, telling us why the Palestinians' "desperation" had led them to suicide bombing. It was their enabling that helped produce this situation where the Palestinians, two years into a disastrous war, are meeting to decide what it is about."

It seems to me that the logic of some situations, when consequences matter, ought to be clear - clear enough that I don't think any imaginable god could change it.

Sometimes, when muddle is serious enough - people need to "get their house in order."

lchic - 06:36pm Apr 3, 2003 EST (# 11024 of 11028)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

Religious Shackles - poem - dR3

http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?53@@.eea14e1/7805

lchic - 06:38pm Apr 3, 2003 EST (# 11025 of 11028)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

The Kurds in Northern Iraq

have established a 'living cultural model'

that maximises the NOW

Palestinians should take note - s!

dccougar - 06:47pm Apr 3, 2003 EST (# 11026 of 11028)
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion but not his own facts.

"Clear communication is vital."

Yes, I think the current clear communication to the Iraqi soldiers should be, "Drop your weapons or you're toast."

rshow55 - 06:52pm Apr 3, 2003 EST (# 11027 of 11028)
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.

Real surrenders aren't usually that simple.

The inconvenience of "making toast" of all the Iraqi soldiers is substantial enough to justify some careful communication.

I do agree that there should be an orderly and complete surrender.

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