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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 - 07:05pm Aug 29, 2002 EST (# 4006 of 4014)
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.

Concern about the middle east, involving the Israeli-Palestinian mess, questions of war with Iraq, and related issues fill the news - and the opinion pages of the TIMES as well. In many, many cases, points made by almarst and gisterme are being discussed - with the same key problems connected to these danger points. Here are recent examples that I've felt were exemplary in interesting ways -- but sadly inadequate in some technical ways that have concerned lchic and almarst as well. Are these "truths"? If so, are these truths "somehow, too weak?"

Summons to War http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/28/opinion/28WED1.html

The White House has yet to meet the difficult burden of showing why Iraq's weapons programs, including its efforts to develop nuclear arms, require an American invasion.

Bush May Request Congress's Backing on Iraq, Aides Say By NEIL A. LEWIS with DAVID E. SANGER http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/29/international/middleeast/29STRA.html

The U.S. isn't convincing other nations -- not even GB: An Uncertain Ally on Iraq By GEOFFREY WHEATCROFT http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/29/opinion/29WHEA.html

We're living in a pervasive, uncertain, muddled Fear By C. K. WILLIAMS http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/29/opinion/29WILL.html

According to high standards of eloquence, you could hardly improve on the OpEd pieces below. They convince, inform, and entertain me well enough. All the same, one can ask

"are these pieces, and pieces like them, ideal if the objective is to influence events in ways that "the average reader of the New York Times" would approve of?

Perhaps, within the format, they are unimprovable. But if so, some issues about format - in the real world, seem worth raising.

MAUREEN DOWD:
I'm With Dick! Let's Make War! http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/28/opinion/28DOWD.html
Treadmills of His Mind http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/25/opinion/25DOWD.html
Coup De Crawford http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/21/opinion/21DOWD.html
Junior Gets a Spanking http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/18/opinion/18DOWD.html

THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN:
Cuckoo in Carolina http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/28/opinion/28FRIE.html
Drowning Freedom in Oil http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/25/opinion/25FRIE.html
Bush's Mideast Sand Trap http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/21/opinion/21FRIE.html
Fog of War http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/18/opinion/18FRIE.html

BILL KELLER:
The Loyal Opposition http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/24/opinion/24KELL.html

NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF:
Wimps on Iraq http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/27/opinion/27KRIS.html
Bush vs. Women http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/16/opinion/16KRIS.html

FRANK RICH:
The Waco Road to Baghdad http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/17/opinion/17RICH.html
The Road to Perdition http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/20/opinion/20FRIC.html

WILLIAM SAFIRE:
Of Turks and Kurds http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/26/opinion/26SAFI.html
Saddam and Terror http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/22/opinion/22SAFI.html

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