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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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lchic - 07:18am Sep 16, 2002 EST (# 4335 of 4339)

http://www.thepolitic.org/main.cfm

""What Will Happen in the 2002 Congressional Midterms? by David Mayhew Let me take three cuts at this question, starting with the very general and ending with the particular.

For the very general cut, what if our minds were an absolute blank about everything that has happened since January 2001? Suppose we do not possess any knowledge at all.

China 1945-46, 1950-53
Korea 1950-53
Guatemala 1954, 1960, 1967-69
Indonesia 1958
Cuba 1959-61
Congo 1964
Peru 1965
Laos 1964-73
Vietnam 1961-73
Cambodia 1969-70
Lebanon 1983-84
Grenada 1983
Libya 1986
El Salvador 1980s
Nicaragua 1980s
Panama 1989
Bosnia 1985
Sudan 1998
Former Yugoslavia 1999

Iraq 1991-20??

Afghanistan 1998, 2001-02

http://www.newint.org/

lchic - 07:27am Sep 16, 2002 EST (# 4336 of 4339)

The USA 'directly' bombed the above ....

Indirectly has it bombed Palestine via the $10m per day gift to Isreal?

Indirectly did it bomb Maggie Thatcher - Brighton Hotel - via gifts from USA to IRA ?

Indirectly and directly via landmines - bombs go off - legs fall off - everyday 'mostplaces' outside the usa - 90 countries have these mines - add cluster bombs.

Indirectly via failure to assist in places of need and times of need has the USA failed peoples of the world - including it's own - 'USA - many men of AfricanCulturalOrigins - are in jail ... their families without support ... and on it goes!

rshow55 - 09:09am Sep 16, 2002 EST (# 4337 of 4339)
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.

lchic 9/16/02 7:18am

The Cold War, and many of the usages of the Cold War - needs to be ended.

The US has to agree to that - and other nations in the world have to make and keep some agreements, too.

rshow55 - 09:12am Sep 16, 2002 EST (# 4338 of 4339)
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.

An important piece, from credible people, that poses an important problem - not necessarily an argument for unilateral action - but an argument for the need for truth - - on things that matter enough. The Iraq matter involves some things that matter a great deal -- but some connected issues matter, too.

Why Iraq Will Defeat Arms Inspectors By GARY MILHOLLIN and KELLY MOTZ http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/16/opinion/16MILH.html

"Inspections can only do one thing well: verify that a country's declarations about a weapons program are honest and complete. It is feasible for inspectors to look at sites and equipment to see whether the official story about their use is accurate. Inspectors can rely on scientific principles, intelligence information and surprise visits to known weapons production sites to test what they are told. It is a different proposition altogether to wander about a country looking for what has been deliberately concealed. That is a task with no end.

" For inspectors to do their job, they have to have the truth, which can only come from the Iraqis. As President Bush told the United Nations last week, the world needs an Iraqi government that will stop lying and surrender the weapons programs. That is not likely to happen as long as Saddam Hussein remains in power. "

Maybe not likely - but a lot of "unlikely" things have happened - - and we need to work out transitions that fit real needs, and real constraints.

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