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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 - 07:23am Apr 13, 2003 EST (# 11275 of 11282)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,936073,00.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/

http://www.economist.com/

lchic - 07:30am Apr 13, 2003 EST (# 11276 of 11282)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

Fifty Five

- good to be alive ?

- There's usually a

- J O K E R

- in the pack

- Who is the JOKER ?

gisterme - 07:49am Apr 13, 2003 EST (# 11277 of 11282)

fredmoore - 06:20pm Apr 12, 2003 EST (# 11264 of ...)

http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@28.03kMaScq6KX.284159@.f28e622/12824

"...The real uneven yoking in the UN is not in the military domain but in the domain of guaranteed freedom of speech without fear of reprisal and particularly with an emphasis on public access to mainstream media in forums such as the one we currently frequent..."

That's an interesting idea, Fred! I've been trying to think in terms of "size" somehow and then figure out how it's fair for ants and fleas and termites to have as much weight as lions, tigers and bears. That's the way the UN is right now and it just can't work like that. I've been thinking along lines like GDP or population and other more conventional ways of "sizing" without much success.

However, the idea of giving a member nation weight at the UN based on the degree of civil liberty within that nation is really good. Somehow the magnitude of power or influence that any member at the UN has needs to be proportional to the quality of their society in terms of applied human rights.

I suppose to do that the UN would have to agree on something like a global bill of rights or set of accepted governmental priniples that would serve as a standard for determining member voting status. Hmmm. There's plenty of food for thought there, Fred. Full compliance with the Global Human Rights Standard would be the "target result" that would also be the motivation toward complance...if it could somehow be tied to influence. In other words, you'd want to set up a situation where doing the right thing pays off. Not directly in money...but directly in improved human condition. Improved human condition does lead to improved prosperity. Unfortunately, as has been the case in Iraq, "human condition" is not a concern to some leaders.

It's hard to imagine just how such a system could be set up; but, it might be possible. "Size" still is a problem. Would a country of 2 million that complied with every aspect of the standard have more say than a country of 2 billion who didn't comply with the standard? Perhaps the "compliance factor" could be a multiplier ranging from 0 to 1 that would be applied to a more conventionally "sized" basis.

Got any ideas? The first (rather cynical) idea that comes to me is that it would be a whopping opportunity to create a new "international" bureaucracy. :-) The potential for corruption seems about as great as the potential for a good result.

lchic - 08:01am Apr 13, 2003 EST (# 11278 of 11282)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

Powell

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news? tmpl=story&u=/afp/20030413/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_war_britain_us&cid=1514&ncid=1473

http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?50@@.4a911214/0

lchic - 08:15am Apr 13, 2003 EST (# 11279 of 11282)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

Tikrit

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/04/13/sprj.irq.war.main/index.html

_______________

Putin - war aim not achieved

Wolfowitz said Thursday that Russia, France and Germany could contribute to rebuilding Iraq by agreeing Baghdad did not have to repay the tens of billions of dollars in loans taken out by Saddam.

"On the whole the proposal is understandable and legitimate," Putin was quoted as saying.

"In any event, Russia has no objection to such a proposal."

France and Germany were less keen on the idea, simply saying it was too early to discuss debt.

Russia is believed to be owed up to $12 billion, with France owed about $8 billion and Germany more than $4 billion.

Putin is also likely to face objections to agreeing to the proposal from the Russian parliament and his finance minister.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/04/12/sprj.irq.russia.putin/index.html

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