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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.

rshow55 - 02:06pm Sep 29, 2003 EST (# 14125 of 14128)
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.

Thomas Friedman won his third Pulitzer prize in 2002

Commentary: Thomas L. Friedman of The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/08/nyregion/08commentary.1.html

Friedman has expressed strong and repeated doubts about the responsiblity and even the sanity of this administration's missile defense proposals, and these statements have deeply influenced me. Maureen Dowd has as well.

Last year, I cited Friedman's ideas and colums 92 times on this thread, and Dowd's tens of times. (MD8102 rshowalter 8/24/01 12:03pm ... MD8103 rshowalter 8/24/01 12:04pm

Almarst has criticised and reacted negatively to things written by Friedman on a number of occasions, objecting to things Friedman has said in columns, and also to the arguments in THE LEXUS AND THE OLIVE TREE . I've found the objections interesting, and fine examples of "paradigm conflict" -- and I've felt that almarst's objections have been constently interesting and important. I find Lexus an important - well worth reading and rereading. And an optimistic book. If we can look at that book as a point of departure - we may be able to make more sense of the question of how sensible it might be to try to help mankind, if not save mankind, through the MD thread 14108 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.UX51b79TJF5.2584157@.f28e622/15814

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The Lexus and the Olive Tree by Thomas L. Friedman Farrar, Straus, Gioux, New York , 1999 has this within the dustcover inner jacket:

As the Foreign Affairs columnist for The New York Times, Thomas L. Friedman has travelled the globe, interviewing people from all walks of contemperary life - Brazilian peasants in the Amazon rain forest, new entrepreneurs in Indonesia, Islamic students in Teheran, and financial wizards on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley.

Now Friedman has drawn on his years on the road to produce and engrossing and original look at the new international system that, more than anything else, is shaping world affairs today: globalization.

HIs argument can be summarized quite simply. Globalization is not just a phenomenon and not just a passing trend. It is the international system that has replaced the Cold War system. Globalization is the integration of capital, technology, and information across national borders, in a way that is creating a single global market and, to some degree, a global village.

You cannot understand the morning news or know where to invest your money or think about where the world is going unless you understand this new system, which is influencing the domestic policies and international relations of virtually every country in the world today. And once you do understand the world as Friedman explains it, you'll never look at it quite the same way again.

With vivid stories and a set of original terms and concepts, Friedman shows us how to see this new system. He dramatizes the conflict of "The Lexus and the olive tree" - the tension between the globalization system and ancient forces of culture, geography, tradition, and community. He also details the powerful backlash that globalization produces among those who feel brutalized by it, and he spells out what we all need to do to keep this system in balance.

Finding the proper balance between the Lexus and the olive tree is the great drama of the globalization era, and the ultimate theme of Friedman's challenging, provocative book - essential reading for all who care about how the world really works.

This is on the back of dust jacket:

. The Lexus and the Olive Tree - by the author of the classic From Beirut to Jerusalem - is the groundbreaking new book about globalization, the system that has replac

rshow55 - 02:07pm Sep 29, 2003 EST (# 14126 of 14128)
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.

The world changed with on 9/11/2000

Here's the Front Page of NYT on the Web - September 12, 2001 - http://www.mrshowalter.net/NYTWebFrontPage_9_11_02.htm

13551 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.UX51b79TJF5.2584157@.f28e622/15243 and Friedman's writings have reflected that. But the opportunities and problems he wrote of remain.

People haven't known how to make the vision Friedman (and some other people) articulated actaully work. A workable harmony between the Lexus and the Olive Tree has eluded us - and terrorism makes everything harder.

Still, if just a few things are missing from Friedman's vision - maybe "saving the world" in the sort of secular sense that Friedman might support might not be so elusive.

I don't think The Lexus and the Olive Tree deals enough with the question of

. How to agree to disagree clearly, without fighting, comfortably, so that they can cooperate stably, safely, and productively.

People have to know that - better than they now do - for globalization to work.

The problems are logical, emotional, and very, very practical.

13690 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.UX51b79TJF5.2584157@.f28e622/15383 quotes fine pieces from John Schwartz and George Packer that could not have been written when Friedman wrote Lexus - but that need to be considered alongside the things in that book.

The answers that are needed have to be formed - and they involve both logical and emotional barriers to the achievement of good and stable "end games" - or trajectories - in negotiation.

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