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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 - 09:29pm Apr 19, 2003 EST (# 11350 of 11500)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

It's the big cat of power via 'religious control' that's the new Saddam!

Secularisation of the entire Middle East is the only way forward --- allowing minds to 'think' without shackles.

Religion at it's worst is run by Godly-Tyrants suppressing development of both individuals and nations.

almarst2003 - 09:44pm Apr 19, 2003 EST (# 11351 of 11500)

The Red Cross calls for urgent action to restore power and other basic services in Baghdad, as health problems escalate. - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2961255.stm

But, in a further sign of chaos, looters can now be seen selling stolen weapons and ammunition - including Kalashnikov assault rifles - openly on the streets.

Correspondents say much of Baghdad still has no running water.

The first convoy of food aid arrived in the city from Kuwait on Saturday, but a larger UN convoy from Jordan is still stuck west of the capital because of security concerns.

The lack of sewage treatment and garbage collection is posing health problems, Mr Huguenin-Benjamin warned.

"One of the major sewage treatment plants in the city was damaged in the war, then looted. It is in urgent need of maintenance and repair - otherwise there is a very serious health hazard if sewage is not treated properly in the hot summer."

Despite the general chaos, doctors are returning to hospitals and working without pay, he said.

But the lack of electricity means that medicines cannot be refrigerated and much hospital equipment lies idle, he said.

The UN children's fund Unicef says piles of rubbish are accumulating at the hospitals and up to 70% of patients at the children's hospital now have diarrhoea.

Anti-US feeling

The BBC's Caroline Hawley in Baghdad says Iraqis remain deeply suspicious of American motives, noting that the oil ministry is one of the few government buildings not to have been looted.

Mass demonstrations against the US presence are a daily occurrence, she says.

A prominent Iraqi exile, former Foreign Minister Adnan Pachachi, has spoken out against the US Government awarding big reconstruction contracts for Iraq.

"No one has the right to commit Iraq to obligations and costs. Only an Iraqi government can do that," he said in Kuwait.

Foreign ministers of the six states which border Iraq, plus Egypt and Bahrain, have called for US-led forces to pull out of Iraq as soon as possible.

jorian319 - 09:46pm Apr 19, 2003 EST (# 11352 of 11500)

almarst has a keen knack for myopic focus on whatever dark cloud may lurk behind any possible silver lining. Such naysaying has already disproven itself in this situation, but just for grins let's give him the tortured "benefit" of the doubt.

Let me suggest that if US presence in Iraq should, as his alarmist "sources" imply, cause the shiites sunni and kurds to unite, the country of Iraq would benefit immeasurably from an historic and unprecedented unity. Perhaps then it could govern itself with something other than savage tyranny. Yay, us!

almarst2003 - 09:47pm Apr 19, 2003 EST (# 11353 of 11500)

"Religion at it's worst is run by Godly-Tyrants suppressing development of both individuals and nations."

Saddam/Baath Party are militant atheists while Bush is a "deeply religious" man.

Go figure:)

almarst2003 - 09:49pm Apr 19, 2003 EST (# 11354 of 11500)

"Yay, us!"

The Law of Unintended Consequences?

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