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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.

tlawrens - 01:39pm Apr 4, 2003 EST (# 11082 of 11086)
It is the business of the future to be dangerous...The major advances in civilization are processes that all but wreck the societies in which they occur.

Question:

In the movie "Black Hawk Down" the American Flags on the soldiers uniforms are all backwards.

WHY?

++++++++++++

A simple "I don't know" would have done looneychic.

jorian319 - 02:00pm Apr 4, 2003 EST (# 11083 of 11086)

A simple "I don't know" would have done looneychic.

Yeah, but it doesn't rhyme.

tlawrens - 02:38pm Apr 4, 2003 EST (# 11084 of 11086)
It is the business of the future to be dangerous...The major advances in civilization are processes that all but wreck the societies in which they occur.

Well, no thanks to anyone here, I got my answer.

Seek and ye shall find!

Only the flag patches affixed to right shoulders of uniforms are reversed, so the blue field of stars faces forward. (Left shoulder patches aren't a problem, as the stars face forward without meddling.) The reversal was inspired by the age-old practice of carrying flags into battle. When fastened to a standard, the American flag's blue-and-white portion is always closest to the pole. A flag bearer rushing into the fray, then, would naturally lead with the stars. In fact, it would be virtually impossible to lead with the stripes - the flag would simply wilt and wrap around the pole, rather than waving triumphantly in the wind.

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New York Times on the Web Forums Science Missile Defense