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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 - 06:49pm May 22, 2003 EST (# 11868 of 11881)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

Jonathan Schell: I try to trace two long, parallel and interconnected developments. The first is the fantastic increase and growth in the means of violence and warfare, which extends really from gunpowder right down to nuclear weapons – which are a true turning point in the history of warfare, because in effect they make it impossible. Victory and defeat are ruled out and it just turns into mutually assured destruction for all, as they said during the Cold War.

I trace that development, which leads to the edge of the annihilation of the human species. And as part of that you also find that there's a transformation of warfare that's occurring at what you might call the root level of warfare, which is the "people's war." And people's war turns out to be a means whereby militarily and technically and economically weak countries can defeat the great powers of the 20th century. And not just once or twice but absolutely uniformly. So it's a kind of amazing and unexpected development because in conventional warfare you're always taught that the superior military force wins. But in people's war, the superior military force loses, consistently.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15965

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lchic - 07:05pm May 22, 2003 EST (# 11869 of 11881)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

Showalter i like the phrase

" trace two long, parallel and interconnected developments '

Your personal chronology - boardly speaking - relating to the work for the wider good set you by Casey relates here - Yes?

lchic - 07:11pm May 22, 2003 EST (# 11870 of 11881)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

book - The Unconquerable World: Power, Nonviolence, and the Will of the People Author: Jonathan Schell

review | 'Schell's radical rethinking of the relationship between war and political power offers a fresh and hopeful perspective '

http://www.aaabooksearch.com/Book/0805044566

lchic - 07:13pm May 22, 2003 EST (# 11871 of 11881)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

Alex - welcome back to the board -good to have your valued contributions on the thread.

lchic - 07:39pm May 22, 2003 EST (# 11872 of 11881)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

Filmmaking - commended book and link

creativity: Introspection, Inquiry, Intuition,Interaction & Impact.

"Creative Filmmaking From the Inside Out." Official web site - www.creativefilmmaking.com

almarst2003 - 11:17pm May 22, 2003 EST (# 11873 of 11881)

Surveys pointing to high civilian death toll in Iraq - http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0522/p01s02-woiq.html

almarst2003 - 11:28pm May 22, 2003 EST (# 11874 of 11881)

Afghan opium production soars, country top producer - http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L21112380.htm

almarst2003 - 11:30pm May 22, 2003 EST (# 11875 of 11881)

The number of women who claim they were raped by British soldiers in Kenya over the past 20 years has doubled to more than 400, with lawyers investigating more than 200 new allegations this week. - http://www.guardian.co.uk/kenya/story/0,12689,961759,00.html

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