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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.

rshow55 - 05:52pm Jun 7, 2003 EST (# 12381 of 12393)
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.

When Almarst argues - with much evidence - that US actions do not work toward the common good (nationally or internationally ) he is making an important point.

rshow55 - 06:02pm Jun 7, 2003 EST (# 12382 of 12393)
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.

Ideas work where they work - not everywhere.

"Solve with only the physical constraints FIRST - then fit social arrangements to the human needs."

is not a usable idea applied to fashion - or the design of products where diversity is a central goal. ( Our economic world does an impressive job of offering diversity already.)

But on issues like supplying energy - or animal feed to meet basic nutritional needs - and on many, many other things, it does make sense.

fredmoore - 06:28pm Jun 7, 2003 EST (# 12383 of 12393)

Robert,

Here's the Thing .... The Thing is you see, that given your knowledge and perhaps some photographic evidence, you ought to be able to go back to 1938 and convince the powers that be to form a coalition of the willing to invade Germany at the cost of many thousands of lives (civilian and military) in order to avert the loss of so many millions who did in FACT die.

That would be an admirable goal. Worthy of a Spielberg movie I think. However, if someone of Almarst's intellect was sent back he would allow the millions to die on the basis of saving the life and dignity of some thousands of people. That has been his position throughout the Iraq war and there is no reason to believe it would be any different if he could time slide. Therein lies the danger of accentuating negativity, of knowing and seeing only 1/10th of complex problem in order to propose a solution.

rshow55 - 06:42pm Jun 7, 2003 EST (# 12384 of 12393)
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.

fredmoore asked a great question in http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.za3DbbCodpN.0@.f28e622/14019 and I responded in 12370 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.za3DbbCodpN.0@.f28e622/14020 including this:

" If I could go back to 1938 - and talk to someone I might actually find a way to get to? I'm mulling that over, thinking of the following cases, thinking of me as I am now, and of "me" as I was, knowing what I knew in 1969.

Contact with C.L. Sulzberger

A connection with Eisenhower and MacArthur at MacArthur's staff in the Phillipines (where Ike was until he returned to the states just after the invasion of Poland.)

A junior academic or graduate student position with Tizard or Blackett - or even contact with C.P. Snow.

Contact with General George Marshall.

Contact with Harry Hopkins.

Contact with people on the French general staff.

Fredmoore , you're right - I'd damn sure have argued for interdiction.

But you may not be seeing 100% of almarst's problem. He thinks of a country that got broken - not by accident - by psychological warfare interacting with its own muddle - and he's frustrated because the results have been so bad.

Fredmoore , you're right about "the danger of accentuating negativity, of knowing and seeing only 1/10th of complex problem in order to propose a solution."

But Almarst has not seen any solutions that actually work for him, where he and the country he cares about is.

Something I've hoped for - if I could get my security clearance problems clear enough to actually work - is that I might help with some pieces of solutions he could use. And other people and leaders could use, too.

Seems to me that, "in the old days" some leaders like Eisenhower would have thought that fair.

jorian319 - 08:53pm Jun 7, 2003 EST (# 12385 of 12393)

I suspect the almarst has some kind of Ultimate Solution in mind, like wiping out Christianity before those devil spawn wipe out Islam.

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