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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 - 08:43pm Sep 26, 2003 EST (# 14036 of 14052)

Fred -

"...Sorry Gisterme .. there's no way you are the Prez!..."

Sorry? SORRY! That's no cause for sorrow! It's just a fact.

"...Say you aren't the other Prez ... you know Elvis?..."

Ah'll neither confirm nor deny that. ;-) Thank ya', thank ya' verra much.

"...Wouldn't mind a pink Caddy bro..."

Be watching your post box. You just never know what might show up there. :-)

fredmoore - 10:20pm Sep 26, 2003 EST (# 14037 of 14052)

I think Lincoln knew more about missile defence than his times were prepared to allow. In the following speech he borrowed from Seward and customised, he sets forth the recipe for peace for the United States. Could this be the same recipe for peace in today's world? I now humbly make some borrowings of my own:

"I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and every patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this incomprehensible planet, will yet swell the chorus of Union when again touched as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature. "

gisterme - 10:41pm Sep 26, 2003 EST (# 14038 of 14052)

"...See? I can be as platitudinous as Robert!"

Bravo jorian! That was a great point.

almarst2003 - 10:50pm Sep 26, 2003 EST (# 14039 of 14052)

Nearly 50 years before the war in Iraq, Britain and America sought a secretive "regime change" in another Arab country they accused of spreading terror and threatening the west's oil supplies, by planning the invasion of Syria and the assassination of leading figures. Newly discovered documents show how in 1957 Harold Macmillan and President Dwight Eisenhower approved a CIA-MI6 plan to stage fake border incidents as an excuse for an invasion by Syria's pro-western neighbours, and then to "eliminate" the most influential triumvirate in Damascus.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/syria/story/0,13031,1050908,00.html

The Struggle for OIL and a World domination just goes on... and on... amd on...

gisterme - 10:56pm Sep 26, 2003 EST (# 14040 of 14052)

cantabb -

"...Well, some like participating in slop..."

As your own posts so amply demonstrate.

Q: What have you accomplished here or on any other web forum, cantabb?

A: "...Nothing more than any other poster would want: a focused discussion..."

You haven't accomplished that here and don't seem to be making any attempt to contribute to focusing the discussion on anything except your own whining. Yet, you keep coming back for more. Hmmm.

I hold up that simple example and observation as the reason for the opinion expressed above... "As your posts amply demonstrate.".

It's okay, bro. Just don't be in denial about it. ;-)

(12 following messages)

New York Times on the Web Forums Science Missile Defense