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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 - 10:10am May 10, 2002 EST (#2146 of 2157)

Government has a role to play regarding the funding of research (that benefits all), and the initial practical implementation of infrastructures that are initially too large for private investors (and not yet turning a dollar). With time and development and earnings ... there is often a move to private investors.

lchic - 10:11am May 10, 2002 EST (#2147 of 2157)

Paul HAWKEN ~ Natural Capital

BEING LOUD does not make you correct .. it just makes you more loud. Hawken

Churchill - America will do the right thing after it's tried everything else :)

"" ... The laws we're ignoring determine how life sustains itself. Commerce requires living systems for its welfare -- it is emblematic of the times that this even needs to be said. Because of our industrial prowess, we emphasize what people can do but tend to ignore what nature does. ... "" see see also

Showalter -- some of the concepts/innovations, you've espoused above, fall into this Natural Capital category. Hawken says it's a movement, coming not from government, rather, the people.

rshow55 - 11:11am May 10, 2002 EST (#2148 of 2157)

Interesting stuff from gisterme and lchic !

I'll be taking a little while to respond. I'm paying attention.

I think my solar energy proposal would work - - and the process of facing up to objections, such as the fine ones gisterme has come up with - is just exactly the process needed to get to a workable design.

I continue to believe that, for the money and engineering resources now devoted to MD programs that can't work - - we could solve all the essential problems of global warming, and world energy supply -- and be well on the way to having that work progress to the point where it could proceed on a economically self-sustaining basis.

At the least, for a lot less than that, we could make a damn fine movie about doing so. From the movie to reality, with simulation and persuasive resources as they are these days, might not be so great a jump.

Maybe after more examination, I'll see I'm wrong -- let me take a little time.

mazza9 - 04:11pm May 10, 2002 EST (#2149 of 2157)
Louis Mazza

Gisterme:

Havn't you heard. This is now the Robert Showalter "Ego Extravaganza Show!" Isn't it nice that the NY Times has so generously sanctioned this web site for his personal use?

...and of course, there is his faithful sidekick lchic. A fountain of Marxist/Leninist filth who brags about being a baby killer. Lchic's favorite story is of the 5 year old who as murdered by those peace loving Palestinians. Every so often they interject the word missile to placate the pundits.

Wanna Go Ballistic?

LouMazza

lchic - 05:46pm May 10, 2002 EST (#2150 of 2157)

mAzzA - anyone and everyone may post here - and they do - even purported 'Toastmasters' ^{... a real, high in the pecking order, Toastmaster will be zooming your way next year (from hereabouts) on a Standards-Raising mission.}

lchic - 05:52pm May 10, 2002 EST (#2151 of 2157)

CLINTON - Terrorism Prevention

Former President Clinton says an anti-terrorism military invasion of Afghanistan during his administration might have been logistically impossible and would have drawn international condemnation.

In a National Public Radio interview aired Friday, Clinton said his White House did much to fight terrorism. Accomplishments included thwarting ``a lot more terrorist attacks than we had,'' Clinton said. Among them, he said, were convicting most of those responsible for acts of terror against Americans while he was president, getting al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden away from the network he was building in Sudan in 1996 and conducting airstrikes against bin Laden training camps in Afghanistan in 1998.

He acknowledged failures, such as being unable to persuade Saudi Arabia to take bin Laden into custody from Sudan and scrapping an operation to have CIA-trained Pakistanis hunt down the suspected terror mastermind in Afghanistan in 1999.

``I think the only thing (more) we could have done is to try some sort of invasion, which would have been widely condemned around the world as a violation of international law,'' said Clinton, a guest on NPR's ``The Tavis Smiley Show.''

Now, the outrage over the Sept. 11 terror attacks has led to widespread support for President Bush's war in Afghanistan, at home and abroad. For instance, Clinton noted the Bush administration has been given ``basing rights in adjoining countries'' to Afghanistan -- crucial to the military's successes.

In the Middle East, Clinton proposed Israel and the Palestinians make an interim agreement if they cannot reach an overall settlement. Clinton, who actively mediated between the two sides, said Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat made a mistake in not taking the peace agreement in late 2000.

He also said that although the idea of a new career as a television talk show host has some appeal, it is unlikely to be his next career turn. That's in part because it would be difficult for such a show to be economically viable, Clinton said.

``I don't think this is going to happen,'' he said of the speculation after he met with NBC executives last week. ``I'd be surprised if it did.''

^------
On the Net: Clinton on National Public Radio:
http://www.npr.org/programs/tavis/
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Clinton.html
AP

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