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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.

jorian319 - 06:14pm Sep 18, 2003 EST (# 13747 of 13824)

I might start watching this Forum

Is that a threat? :-)

...some posters not only like the slop, but ADMIRE it reverentially, and ask for more.

Well, it is a public forum, and the only way I know of to diminish the slop-ratio would be to post even greater volumes of posts that are not only relevant but also compelling enough to command the general conversation. The shame of it is that the subject of missile defense per se just doesn't seem to have the power to command such urgency. Maybe Ill Kim will do something stupid, and revitalize this place.

cantabb - 06:24pm Sep 18, 2003 EST (# 13748 of 13824)

jorian319 - 06:14pm Sep 18, 2003 EST (# 13747 of 13747)

cantabb: I might start watching this Forum

Jorian: Is that a threat? :-)

Well, NOT even a promise ! Just "might" :)

Well, it is a public forum,

Yeah, but that doesn't mean it's there for ANY one to keep abusing it. Think of a public park !

.....and the only way I know of to diminish the slop-ratio would be to post even greater volumes of posts that are not only relevant but also compelling enough to command the general conversation.

That, am afraid, will only aggravate the problem, NOT solve it.

Steering it back to focus, or demanding that the discussion reflect the general purpose of the forum -- might work. With NYT protecting its own interest and asking posters to abide by its posting policy, all which I have yet to see.

bbbuck - 06:52pm Sep 18, 2003 EST (# 13749 of 13824)

You're right cantabelle.

This is where posters go, when they want to post reams of gibberish.

Welcome home, fi.

gisterme - 06:54pm Sep 18, 2003 EST (# 13750 of 13824)

jorian -

"...A smuggled or domestically assembled device would seem a much greater threat than one delivered (suicidally, by the country of origin) by missile..."

That's true but it's a different threat and one I hope we're already working to defend against. Homeland security should mean more than better airport passenger screeining. That's been known to be a threat since before the first Gulf War. My answer to that before has always been why bar the door and leave the windows open? If there are two threats instead of one it would seem prudent to defend against both so long as both are credible.

The other assumption you make is that a person who thinks they have nothing to lose would worry about retaliation after launching a missile at the US. That's not necessarily so. For example, Hitler ordered Germans to destroy Germany once he realized that he was going down. That's because he believed that he personally was Germany incarnate and that without him there could be no Germany. Saddam has made a similar statement about himself and Iraq. So massive retaliation may not scare somebody like Saddam or Kim Jong Il who have already shown that they don't care a bit about their people.

There's another thing too. We know that. Would we be justified to wreak massive destruction on a place and possibly kill millions of innocents because one madman attacked us with a nuclear missile or even a smuggled bomb? I hope not. It would be worth a lot to me as a taxpayer to devise means of making sure that some nut with a ballistic missile can't put us in the position of having to make that decision.

gisterme - 06:58pm Sep 18, 2003 EST (# 13751 of 13824)

cantabb -

"...WHY NOT focus on it, then ? Instead of ......"

If you're asking rshow to focus on it, you might as well forget it.

Besides him the rest of us seem to be finding some focus...except for you.

cantabb - 07:08pm Sep 18, 2003 EST (# 13752 of 13824)

bbbuck - 06:52pm Sep 18, 2003 EST (# 13749 of 13751)

You're right cantabelle.

Not out of School-yard yet ???

This is where posters go, when they want to post reams of gibberish.

Welcome home, fi.

The difference is: THEY at least post. And you DO NOT !

Juvenile comments : not considered on-topic posting !

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New York Times on the Web Forums Science Missile Defense