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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 - 11:41am Jul 22, 2003 EST (# 13092 of 13095)
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.

Gisterme , whatever else you may say about him, is an accomplished debater - deflecting what he can't deny - and "fencing" so as to avoid getting anything to closure.

13070 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.d3FBb8Ofrta.431031@.f28e622/14749

13071 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.d3FBb8Ofrta.431031@.f28e622/14750

13072 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.d3FBb8Ofrta.431031@.f28e622/14751 which ends:

Working on this thread, especially since February of this year, I have been making an assumption that people on the UN Security Council looked here from time to time. Those people know whether or not I was right or wrong.

I've also assumed that I was not alone in thinking that gisterme is Bush - for reasons expressed in 10063 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.d3FBb8Ofrta.431031@.f28e622/11608 .

"What did he know, and when did he know it?" is an interesting question.

The questions:

What did gisterme think and say, and when?

and

Is gisterme President Bush?

are coupled, and answerable, questions.

- - - -

They remain answerable questions - answerable by actually checking - after gisterme's last 16 (mostly evasive) postings.

To paraphrase Shakespeare, "I think he protests too loudly." http://www.handlebars.org/?a=article&articleid=174

rshow55 - 11:49am Jul 22, 2003 EST (# 13093 of 13095)
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.

Last week's Time Magazine http://www.time.com/time/magazine/current/ had some fine stuff, including the cover story:

A QUESTION OF TRUST: http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101030721/story.html by Michael Duffy and James Carney

This week's TIME Magazine also has fine stuff.

The War Comes Home: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101030728-465797,00.html

The White House launches a political counterattack as Bush's approval rating slides, casualties mount in Iraq and questions linger about the case for war

and especially

I N T H E A R E N A How Bush Misleads Himself By JOE KLEIN http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101030728-465817,00.html which includes this:

Why has the uranium story puffed up so huge? It wouldn't have been a very big deal without the deepening crisis in Iraq. But it also has ballast because it clarifies an aspect of George W. Bush's essential character — specifically, the problem he has with telling the truth. I am not saying Bush is a liar. Lying is witting: "I did not have sexual relations with that woman." This is weirder than that. The President seems to believe that wishing will make it so — and he is so stupendously incurious that he rarely makes an effort to find the truth of the matter. He misleads not only the nation but himself. . . . .

But the country can no longer afford the President's self-delusions. . . .

In fact, the current military situation is extremely dangerous, not just to the troops on the ground but to our national security in general.

There's reason to suspect that, in addition to self-delusion, and bullying - there's quite a lot of conscious deception. Leaders sometimes deflect, and sometimes lie. But it ought to be exceptional - and the messes produced should be cleaned up. Bush isn't doing that.

Who's Unpatriotic Now? By PAUL KRUGMAN http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/22/opinion/22KRUG.html

By cooking intelligence to promote a war that wasn't urgent, the administration has squandered our military strength.

And by telling lies that are obviously false, he's squandering credibility that the United States ought to have and deserve. In the case of Osprey - - he sets out a blatantly false argument that spinoffs from Osprey might justify a significant part of its cost. That's a clear example of what Klein talked about:

The President seems to believe that wishing will make it so — and he is so stupendously incurious that he rarely makes an effort to find the truth of the matter. He misleads not only the nation but himself.

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