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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.

lchic - 11:03pm Oct 27, 2003 EST (# 15759 of 15767)
ultimately TRUTH outs : TRUTH has to be morally forcing : build on TRUTH it's a strong foundation

:)

"Facts, facts, facts," Mr Gradgrind demanded in Dickens's Hard Times. The best newspaper editors have demanded facts too. But what we are getting at present is rumour, rumour, rumour - as though we were living in the middle ages, not the 21st century. And what rumour helps to induce is quietism. As Shakespeare said in Henry the Fourth, Part Two: "Rumour is a pipe, blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures, and of so easy and so plain a stop that the blunt monster with uncounted heads, the still-discordant wavering multituude, can play upon it."

lchic - 11:10pm Oct 27, 2003 EST (# 15760 of 15767)
ultimately TRUTH outs : TRUTH has to be morally forcing : build on TRUTH it's a strong foundation

The two posts above are linked .... better get the Blake Morrison (author) acknowledgement in before 'the poster' registers a complaint

cantabb - 11:26pm Oct 27, 2003 EST (# 15761 of 15767)

lchic - 11:00pm Oct 27, 2003 EST (# 15758 of 15760)

I know I was making a point about social conscience ... not sure regarding CantabbulatorOpinions.

I thought you were talking -- as usual -- about Rshow55's biographical details and expanding on his comments. What "social conscience" ?

Here's and interesting except from an off-shore broadsheet ... But Holden can't or won't say more - it's left to us to join up the dots. ....

More on "dots" !

lchic - 11:03pm Oct 27, 2003 EST (# 15759 of 15760)

Rumour might suit governments, and self-satisfied journalists, but it doesn't suit me. Enough of your secrets.

I know, I know: You prefer conspiracy theories, baseless speculations, faux-Zen conundrums and posting LINKS (also to some "self-satified journalists'). And love to preach (sans practice): "ultimately TRUTH outs : TRUTH has to be morally forcing : build on TRUTH it's a strong foundation."

lchic - 11:10pm Oct 27, 2003 EST (# 15760 of 15760)

The two posts above are linked .... better get the Blake Morrison (author) acknowledgement in before 'the poster' registers a complaint

Linked? If you say so !

wrcooper - 11:51pm Oct 27, 2003 EST (# 15762 of 15767)

bluestar23

Did you happen to notice that the site you linked <http://www.fas.org/spp/starwars/program/nmd/> also prominently linked the UCS site and the report "Pushing the Limits" <http://www.clw.org/pub/clw/coalition/libbmd.htm>?

The introductory material said nothing supportive about the administration's NMD program; it only laid out its basic features and stated objectives.

I hope you noticed that the underlying strategy of the program is to overwhelm any limited attack with more interceptors than warheads or nondiscriminable countermeasures. This is an absurd objective and doctrine.

It would be possible to load an ICBM with a large number of simple countermeasures that would fool the GBXs and on-board sensors.

My point all along has been that the cost and complexity of the proposed system simply makes no practical sense when compared to the other, more realistic options we have available to us to meet the threat of a limited (authorized or unauthorized) attack by ICBMs.

This program is a Rube Goldberg monstrosity. It's pure unadulterated pork.

lchic - 12:57am Oct 28, 2003 EST (# 15763 of 15767)
ultimately TRUTH outs : TRUTH has to be morally forcing : build on TRUTH it's a strong foundation

Cantabbulator - re dots .... post demonstrates how dot joining has infused into culture

cantabb - 01:13am Oct 28, 2003 EST (# 15764 of 15767)

lchic - 12:57am Oct 28, 2003 EST (# 15763 of 15763)

Cantabbulator - re dots .... post demonstrates how dot joining has infused into culture

Is your "IGNORE" function off-again ?

"Connecting the dots" : Much over-used cliche: !

The "dots" are NOT some generic "dots" you buy from a local store that can be connected whichever way YOU like !

The "dots" are facts 'relevant' to a problem/situation.

Get your relevant "facts" relevant first, and then try to make rational connections, supportable by the "facts" ["dots"] -- as I tried to clarify for you & rshow before.

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New York Times on the Web Forums Science Missile Defense