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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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rshow55 - 03:52pm Nov 16, 2002 EST (# 5840 of 5843)
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.

I've been interested the way the Iraqi crisis has been playing out over the last two weeks - and sometimes I think it has been going breathtakingly well, everything considered.

Now, it seems to me that a lot of things could go very well - quite realistically. With the people actually involved, and circumstances as they are.

Different people judge differently - but looking at the way things are going - I like the pace pretty well. There's plenty of time for a lot of things to work out nicely from many points of view.

Just now, I'm worried that the pace, in some spots - may be just a click too fast. Not much too fast. But if people take enough time to be rested, to think clearly, to not panic and to think what they want to have happen - and what others reasonably could want to have happen - a lot might sort out well.

I know different people would guess differently - but here are some interesting questions, I think:

. What would the individual people who negotiated at the Security Council over recent weeks want to have happen?

. What would the average _ _ _ _ _ want to have happen, if they thought carefully about the situation?

For _ _ _ _ _ you might substitute:

Iraqi, Arab, American, financially interested party, Frenchman, Brit, German, Russian, Saudi, intenational lawyer . . . and so on and so on.

If people thought enough to be able to make fair guesses about those sorts of questions - if they had their heads sorted out that well - - - a lot might move in good directions.

I'm hopeful - but hope nobody panics when it really matters - or gets too tired - or talks themselves into a stupid position.

Things could work out pretty well, it seems to me - and in ways quite consistent with the interests of the United States, and the interests of people of good will everywhere.

rshow55 - 04:03pm Nov 16, 2002 EST (# 5841 of 5843)
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.

almarst2002 11/16/02 3:43pm . . . I think this is a good time to consider how we could examine, and adress, essentially every kind of concern almarst has expressed on this board, in two years of eloquence, careful thought, and hard work.

It seems to me that the time is getting ripe for that.

One expression of the Golden Rule is

" I will - - - if you will - - - ."

Maybe, if the Arab world is asked to sort out some of its messes - and acts to do so - others can ask the United States to face up to some of its messes, and sort them out, too.

Missile Defense might be a good place to start.

Challenge, questions, and invokation of the need for force:
727 rshow55 3/20/02 7:58pm ... 728 rshow55 3/20/02 8:32pm
729 rshow55 3/20/02 8:37pm .

Counterchallenge:
7643gisterme 3/22/02 12:34pm . (Note: Add funding)

Comment and response:
779 manjumicha2001 3/23/02 1:28am ... 782-783 rshow55 3/23/02 10:15am
D84 rshow55 3/2/02 10:52am .

We should stop doing indefensible things.

Betraying Humanity By BOB HERBERT http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/28/opinion/28HERB.html

" . . . ultimately the many tribes that inhabit this earth are going to have to figure out a way to forge some workable agreements on how we treat one another."

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