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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 - 12:20pm May 16, 2003 EST (# 11714 of 11722)
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.

Searching "renegotiation" on this thread and reading the links is painful. It is also an exercise that gives me great respect for some of the things almarst has said. Are things hopeful, as I've thought - or really hopeless? It seems to me that you can make some pretty good arguments, both ways.

Maybe things are so messed up that we're coming to a point where facts can be faced. Maybe we're getting closer to generally workable solutions - but still have work to do.

Maybe I've been much too optimistic, many times, and was much too optimistic on March 12 of this year. 9858-9 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.baAMaGWja6b.91348@.f28e622/11402

Here are some questions:

What should have happened on and before August 1914?

What should have happened to prevent the tragedies of WWII?

How should the world have reacted to the horrors of Stalin's Russia, and Mao's China?

How should the world have reacted to have prevented or ameliorated the human rights violations in Rwanda?

How should the world have reacted to the situation in Yugoslavia?

When the UN was founded, the major powers promised to work for a world of justice and plenty for all mankind. What should have been done, that was not?

What could be done now, facing these kinds of challenges? Knowledge should make it possible to handle similar challenges better than before.

10074 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.baAMaGWja6b.91348@.f28e622/11621

International law is being renegotiated - and when agreements are in the process of being renegotiated - they are also in temporary or partial abeyance

To do much better than we're doing - we have to find ways to get facts straight - when it matters enough - against the inclination of power holders. Unless this is done, there is no solution to some of our most key problems. Good, stable closures simply are not possible.

Here is Berle: ( Power - Chapter II )

In the hands or mind of an individual, the impulse toward power is not inherently limited. Limits are imposed by extraneous fact and usually also by conscience and intellectual restraint. Capacity to make others do what you wish knows only those limitations.

That's plain and straight. Power holders want to limit the ability of others to determine facts because that extends their power. It is in the overwhelming collective interest to see that facts that matter enough are determined - both so that power can be reasonably limited - and because human beings have to make decisions on what they believe to be true.

If leaders of nation states had the wisdom, fortitude and courage to face the fact that there have to be limits on the right of people in power to decieve themselves and others, we'd live in a much more hopeful world. Limits that put some limits on personal political power and on sovereignty.

Maybe not severe limits. Maybe not limits applied with great consistency. But some limits. Enforced sometimes. When it matters enough.

If initiatives like the one described in France Claims U.S. Is Engaging in Disinformation Campaign By BRIAN KNOWLTON International Herald Tribune http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/15/international/middleeast/15CND-DIPLO.html were actively followed up - the potential for embarrassment would be great - but the potential for good would be enormous - historically important.

lchic - 01:13pm May 16, 2003 EST (# 11715 of 11722)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

Congo | 12,000 people are trying to get into a UN compound, others are hiding in the bush .... why so?

lchic - 01:15pm May 16, 2003 EST (# 11716 of 11722)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

Saudi

In the compound |