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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.

gisterme - 06:37pm Jul 23, 2003 EST (# 13116 of 13267)

"Whoever Gisterme is - he sure pushes hard to support Osprey..."

Not because it is Osprey; but because the technology being developed holds some promise for helping solve some civil transport problems that anybody who is sick of sitting in commuter traffic can easily appreciate.

If the specific Osprey develpment makes our armed forces more effective and especially if having an aircraft like that may reduce the danger to our own servicemen (and women) then just on that basis its worthwhile in my view.

That said, I can't help but think that a relatively high speed and fuel effiecient VTOL aircraft (compared to a helIcopter) that can carry as many people as a city bus and can land anywhere a helicopeter could might give a whole new meaning to the "park and ride" idea. The Osprey itself is probably not that aircraft...but the technology developed under the Osprey program could easily lead to that.

In my view, the main reason why so many commuters in metropolitan areas don't use public transit is because they're more comfortable sitting out a traffic jam in their own cars than they are sitting out the same traffic jam on a city bus. That's certainly been my reason. Most folks (myself included) don't mind taking a short ride on a public transit system. They just don't want to take a short ride that takes a long time.

There would undoubtedly be plenty of new challenges to integrating large numbers of VTOL commuter aircraft into our sociteies, challenges like air traffic control, noise abatement, how to quickly travel that last mile to your workplace once you get off the aircraft and etc. But those are problems that could be solved if we really wanted to.

gisterme - 07:00pm Jul 23, 2003 EST (# 13117 of 13267)

Hi wrcooper!

Nice to hear from you. I had hoped you wouldn't really leave and do hope you'll pop in as often as you like. I've been sort of coming and going myself. :-)

My problem is that the longer I stay away from the forum, the more strident Showalter becomes in expressing his fantasy that I'm some sort of major poobah. After each absence I need to sort of grab him by the collar and shake a bit or dump a bucket of rhetorical water on him to bring him to his senses. After that, usually, if I stick around for a while, he seems to maintain a more even keel. Because of that he thinks I'm a bully. Oh well. I think he's just a glutton for punishment because, it would seem, he just keeps begging for it. Do you suppose he could be a mochist?

gisterme - 07:22pm Jul 23, 2003 EST (# 13118 of 13267)

Fred,

"...Why do NYT keep this forum going?..."

You've got me on that one. Could it be that it's been so long since anybody at the NYT has actually looked at this forum that they've simply fogotten about it? Hmmm.

"...Stay tuned for the answers to these and many more questions ......

I'll anxiously stay tuned. Until then, I'll stick with the sterile fly theory...although the Eisenhower's and Casey's ghosts idea also sounds plausable.

gisterme - 07:25pm Jul 23, 2003 EST (# 13119 of 13267)

Oops! I meant "plausible". Seem to be having trouble with those "i"s of late. :-)

gisterme - 08:11pm Jul 23, 2003 EST (# 13120 of 13267)

I have to wonder how Saddam Hussein feels today after losing his two sons. Bloody tyrant that he is, he is still a father and must, at some level, feel the same about his children as all the rest of us.

No doubt his first impulse is rage and lust for revenge. That just seems to be his nature. But, once that passes, in a quiet moment, will he stop to wonder why his boys are dead? Will he realize that he's now tasting the same bitter pill that he (and they) prescirbed for so many other Iraqi mothers and fathers? Will he wonder if he should have done things differently? He must know that he could have. He must know that his sons would be alive today if he had.

Saddam must also know that the same is in store for him and, if his other son is like him, that son too. I doubt that anything Saddam could do would spare his own life; but I wonder if a man like that is capable of coming to his senses in time to save the life of his last remaining son. Probaby not; but stranger things have happened. We can only hope.

fredmoore - 08:14pm Jul 23, 2003 EST (# 13121 of 13267)

Gisterme,

'Could it be that it's been so long since anybody at the NYT has actually looked at this forum that they've simply fogotten about it? Hmmm.'

No way Jose! When the forums were pared down it was a meticulous process which was stated to be for the purpose of making the forums easier to manage. The volume of traffic on this thread was and is highly notice(i)ble. That could not be missed!

I'd 'e' Rebecca and ask her but she may close MDF down when we are all having so much fun! That includes Showalter too I suspect.

Cheers

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