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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?

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rshow55 - 10:15am Apr 5, 2003 EST (# 11140 of 11152)
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.

Another thing. The things that happen are as complicated as they happen to be. As connected as they happen to be.

And only in a minority of cases can we describe them well enough to be sure about what is happening in all details. A tiny minority of cases. We aren't even a billionth fast enough - and couldn't imagine what such full description would take.

But we sort out a lot.

Even so, we maintain some astonishing, ornate fictions because so few people can or will check coherently.

When those fictions get consequential enough - they ought to be checked. Before things get as far out of hand as they sometimes do these days.

Pardon me for moving slowly and platitudinously. The most important things everybody already knows.

One thing people know well - but deny intermittently, for various reasons. The world is as orderly as it looks to be when we look carefully. That's not an accident - and you don't have to invoke religion to explain the overwhelming bulk of the order people actually see.

If people simply attend to the interconnections and orders that they can find out about - damn few big lies, or big mistakes, can hold up for long.

The missile defense boondoggle is big enough, and complicated enough (and blatant enough) that it would be a good case to show what the necessary checking and focusing would actually take. There are other examples. In every case - to get honest answers, and enough interlocking detail - in the face of resistance - some power would have to be brought to bear.

U.S. Forces Roll Through Iraqi Capital By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 8:33 a.m. ET http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-War-Rdp.html ends with this:

One of the men waiting in line for water was evenhanded with his gripes.

``All are liars. Bush is a liar. Saddam is a liar,'' the man said. ``We are an exhausted people.''

We'd do better, and be less exhausted - if we could get the level of deception down. Technically, that wouldn't be so hard, if people actually wanted to do it.

jorian319 - 10:30am Apr 5, 2003 EST (# 11141 of 11152)

Iraqi news says "We slaughtered them at the airport. The Republican Guard is now mopping up the remaining American troops."

The American news tends to differ, just a little.

rshow55 - 10:48am Apr 5, 2003 EST (# 11142 of 11152)
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.

A long time back, I worked with a US military engineer who taught me a lot - and we were worrying about a piece of hardware - trying to get components that would meet a specific need. We could barely get what we needed. We ended up with some choices, none ideal. What was best?

Ray looked at me, shrugged eloquently, and said:

"Relative virginity among whores."

We chose the component that was better for the job than the others - though it still left a good deal to be desired.

It worked as well as it did. Still, thinking about American honesty - which is impressive sometimes - the phrase does stick with me.

Compared to Saddam's folks, we're very good.

But we might be better - and do better if we were.

robkettenburg03 - 01:31pm Apr 5, 2003 EST (# 11143 of 11152)

Yeah, the U.S. news is FULL OF BS, just like jorian319!

My home page - http://www.angelfire.com/ny5/robkettenburg

lchic - 02:35pm Apr 5, 2003 EST (# 11144 of 11152)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

"Water Water Everywhere

and not a drop to drink"

Water no longer coming in by 'taxi' from Kwait .... the River Euphrates and a Texan

are offering locals 'drinking quality water'

WATER on the MASLOW scale

Important to the local population

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