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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 - 08:29am Apr 4, 2003 EST (# 11049 of 11053)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

Blair - talking BBC-Arabic ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/ ) - praises 'George's' plan for the 2 States solution re Palestine roadmap.

Blair belives Iraqi council will be installed to run Iraq, have regard for human rights, and be representative of all the people of Iraq.

lchic - 08:38am Apr 4, 2003 EST (# 11050 of 11053)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

Blair

http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page1.asp

http://newssearch.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/results.pl?scope=newsifs&tab=news&q=blair&x=4&y=7

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/2916797.stm

lchic - 08:49am Apr 4, 2003 EST (# 11051 of 11053)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

SARS --- knocking ME off the front pages

rshow55 - 09:28am Apr 4, 2003 EST (# 11052 of 11053)
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.

PM Blair may be the most important person alive today, if we're to get through this time of crisis.

We're in a time of crisis, and there are deeply "contradictory" attitudes expressed with great feeling. Some just muddled, some truly contradictory.

Many of these different viewpoints are important in different ways. Some show a fractal-like character, and show complexities that aren't necessarily (or even often) contradictory. For example, To Imagine Iraq After Saddam Hussein, You Must Think Like an Iraqi By ETHAN BRONNER http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/04/opinion/04FRI4.html starts with an expression of fractal-like regularities:

Every journalist abroad wants to tell his readers at home two contradictory things. The first is: "The people here may look and sound strange, but they are no different from you and me. They want security and dignity; they seek a better life for their children. What you share with them far outweighs your differences." The second message is the opposite: "Yes, people here hunger and hurt and love; yes, they enjoy ice cream and action movies. But if you think that by knowing that, you know them, you are mistaken. These people are very different from you."

Some deeply felt statements show true contradiction. Arab Media Portray War as Killing Field By SUSAN SACHS http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/04/international/worldspecial/04ARAB.html ends:

"Some people said, before the invasion of Iraq, that solving the Saddam problem would make the reputation of the U.S. better," said Turki al-Hamad, a Saudi commentator who advocates democratic reforms in the kingdom. "Now if the United States said 2 plus 2 is 4, no one would believe them."

al_Hamad knows, of course, that 2 + 2 = 4 ---- and that remains true, even if the devil himself happens to say so.

We are facing a time where people are going to have to face up to mistakes - true contradictions - because it is too expensive and dangerous not to.

One point should not be a contradiction - though it is often percieved to be.

Distrust and trust can both be good things.

Both are absolutely essential things. You need both - - alternately - - with switching from a perspective of trust to one of distrust again and again. Life would be hopeless without both trust and distrust. That's no contradicition.

If we figured out just a little bit more than we know, and if we were just a little bit more honest -- we could survive - and the world would be much better. If the following simple rhyme became a "nursery rhyme" - learned by 4 year olds and their parents -- the world would become a lot better. The rhyme has a lot to do with "connecting the dots" - and the fact that people, good as they are, aren't perfect.

Adults need secrets, lies and fictions

To live within their contradictions.

. . . . But when things go wrong

. . . . And knock about

. . .

. . . . Folks get together

. . . . And work it out.

A classic experiment is described in THE STRUCTURE OF SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTIONS 2nd Ed. by Thomas S. Kuhn, , at the end of Chapter 6 “Anomaly and the Emergence of Scientific Discoveries” describes what an "intellectual crisis" or "crisis of faith" looks like, and to some extent what it feels like. The example is unemotional enough that people can be clearer about it than they are about more emotional things. How do you deal with a card that is a "red spade"? If you handle the matter automatically and unconsciously - as people handle most things in their

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