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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.

almarst2002 - 10:50pm Jul 16, 2003 EST (# 13036 of 13038)

Two previously unknown Iraqi groups on Tuesday warned countries against sending troops to Iraq, where U.S. troops are facing daily attacks, Arab television channels said on Tuesday. "We strongly reject and will resist with weapons any military intervention under the umbrella of the United Nations, the Security Council, NATO, or Islamic and Arab countries," a group calling itself the Iraq Liberation Army said in a statement shown on the Dubai-based al-Arabiya television.

Thirty-two U.S. soldiers have been killed in guerrilla attacks in Iraq since President Bush declared major combat over on May 1.

Troops from Spain, Poland, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, the Baltic states and possibly from the Philippines, Thailand, Mongolia and Fiji are likely to be part of the peacekeeping forces in Iraq.

Bangladesh and Pakistan, both Muslim nations, have also been asked to take part in peacekeeping operations but they have not announced any decision yet and there is considerable domestic opposition to the proposals.

India said on Monday it would not send troops to Iraq without a United Nations mandate, rejecting a request from Washington for help in the war-torn nation.

Qatar-based al-Jazeera television also showed a statement from another Iraqi group -- the "Iraqi National Islamic Resistance: 1920 Revolution Brigades," in reference to Iraq's history fighting British colonial rule -- warning against further foreign intervention.

"It implored Arab and Islamic countries about the seriousness of sending their troops to Iraq," al-Jazeera quoted the statement as saying.

It said that anti-U.S. attacks had forced Washington to seek help from multinational forces and speed up the creation of a Governing Council, which was launched on Sunday.

A group claiming to be an Iraqi branch of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network claimed responsibility for attacks on U.S. soldiers in an audio tape broadcast on al-Arabiya on Sunday but its rhetoric sounded more typical of Saddam supporters than Islamic militants.

Analysts say there is no shortage of groups with animosity for the Americans, from Baathists, to Arab Sunni, Shi'ite and Kurdish Islamists, to ordinary people seeking revenge for U.S. treatment of Iraqis, which is seen as heavy-handed.

http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=3089038

almarst2002 - 11:11pm Jul 16, 2003 EST (# 13037 of 13038)

Hundreds of thousands of Hispanics, many of them US citizens, were rounded up in Los Angeles and forcibly deported to Mexico during the Depression to protect white people's jobs, according to a civil case being brought in the city. http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,999649,00.html

Not from the US school curriculum...

almarst2002 - 11:13pm Jul 16, 2003 EST (# 13038 of 13038)

After weeks of speculation and finger-pointing, the rest of the administration finally agreed a damage-limitation strategy - and the strategy was "blame Tenet".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,999257,00.html

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