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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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klsanford0 - 02:54pm Oct 13, 2003 EST (# 14897 of 14912)

rshow55:

"People who know enough general information to enjoy a Star Trek movie really know a lot of the right answers."

See what I mean...? This is the level of discussion here....it's just intolerable....

jorian319 - 03:07pm Oct 13, 2003 EST (# 14898 of 14912)
"Statements on frequently important subjects are interesting." -rshow55

One person's "beautiful and interesting" is another's "boring, incoherent and irrelevant".

Tyranny by majority is the slippery slope to the left. So while I find lchic's ramblings quite uniformly uninteresting, I will defend to the death her right to be boring, incoherent and irrelevant.

rshow55 - 03:14pm Oct 13, 2003 EST (# 14899 of 14912)
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.

Thank you , Jorian . Though we disagree about "interesting" - you're right that different people score differently.

klsanford0 - 03:16pm Oct 13, 2003 EST (# 14900 of 14912)

Geostrategic issues do have a bearing on the MD...:

BEIJING (AP) -- China asked the European Union on Monday to end a ban on arms sales to Beijing imposed after the bloody 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown and predicted prosperous times ahead as their relationship flourishes.

The Chinese government's comments came in a major policy paper released barely two weeks before a high-level EU delegation travels to Beijing.

The EU in Luxembourg released its own policy paper later Monday, saying that persistent human rights violations in China overshadowed that country's remarkable economic growth and efforts to combat poverty. It made no mention of the arms sales ban.

China said that ``common ground between China and the EU far outweighs their disagreements.''

``China-EU relations now are better than any time in history,'' China said. ``Neither side poses a threat to the other.''

The text was released by the government's Xinhua News Agency, which predicted the EU would eventually become China's largest investment partner. The growing relationship, it said, ``has served the interest of both sides.''

Beijing and the EU established relations in 1975, and the European Union has grown increasingly powerful and relevant since then -- particularly in recent years. The EU is China's third-largest partner and vice versa, Beijing said, and trade volume between China and the EU hit $87 billion last year.

A closer relationship with the European Union would help China find markets for billions of dollars in products and offer a counterbalance to its economically close but sometimes politically tense relationship with the United States.

The EU should end a 14-year ban on arms sales to the communist government in Beijing ``at an early date so as to remove barriers to greater bilateral cooperation on defense industry and technologies,'' the Chinese government said in the very last sentence of the 4,000-word report. It also advocated increased ``high-level'' military and strategic exchanges."

The Chinese are concerned that future MD research will provide a workable system, thereby nulllifying the threat of China's advanced new Ballistic Missile programme ....so they seek to broaden their technological base by approaching the Europeans...

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