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 [F] New York Times on the Web Forums  / Science  /

    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.


Earliest Messages Previous Messages Recent Messages Outline (5855 previous messages)

rshow55 - 07:28am Nov 17, 2002 EST (# 5856 of 5863) Delete Message
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.

Great posts, lunarchick - - dealing with essential problems that have to be faced and solved - step by step. I thought your last post was a wonderful summary of problems that are going to have to occupy the Islamic world for many years to come - problems related to concerns the oil-producing states have worried about, and known they've had, for more than a generation.

How are these states to arrange themselves so that they can become prosperous, modern, and stable - when oil income can't do everything - and when everybody knows that their oil riches won't last forever?

The Saudis and other have explicitly asked for help with this - again and again.

Some problems - or kinds of problems - aren't solved - they are coped with - and handled with more or less success.

Lunarchick states an important and essential part of the problem that the Arab nations face - and have to face. It isn't overwhelming - but it has to be handled step by step. But at some levels - some key adjustments are going to have to be made. Not impossible ones, if they are handled with a sense of what needs to be done, and why - and a sense of where the constraints are. But there are some things that do have to change - if Arab nations are going to provide for themselves well, or deal with others in ways that are decent and stable. Here again is a key summary of circumstances lunarchick 11/17/02 6:33am that I think is brilliant and on-point:

" Pipeline nations have IN-in-comes begging the question, how should money be divided, given to whom, when, and for what reason?

" Such nations have to talk, to communicate longways, shortways, crossways and determine national futures.

" What impedements to straight talking are there -if any?

" If the society is based on a structure of lies and deceptions, then it is necessary to have to admit that mistakes have been made and look for truth -- to get everyone 'jumping from it' to welcome new futures.

" Checking and looking for truths are essential and have to be 'morally forcing' and carried out for the national good. Without reaching this stage a country can be stagnant, paralysed and locked into a redundant yesterday.

All societies have plenty of conventions, lies, and deceptions that slow down function - and that make some things ugly. If there are too many, things are paralyzed. Too often in the past, and now - the Arab countries have been paralyzed - performance has simply been very low compared to that of the West.

How can the changes that are necessary for decent performance over the long term - necessary in Arab terms going to be undertaken? Is it possible?

It is not possible if everything has to be done all at once. It is not possible if inconsistencies aren't tolerated.

But the problems Lunarchick speaks of just above are essential - and they have to be handled - handled better than today - handled to a greater extent than today - - if the Arab states are to solve problems that they know they have - and that they know they have to solve.

If solutions to these problems is impossible under Islam, then Islam is a failed religion. I don't believe that Islam really is that inflexible. But if it is, defenders of that faith are well along toward presiding over its demise.

lunarchick - 01:46pm Nov 17, 2002 EST (# 5857 of 5863)

Religions are developed and accepted because they closely fit the environment and needs of the era when they evolve.

When folks turn to Makkah/Mecca prostrate, they run through a procedure that actually exercises 'every' muscle in their bodies, this done 4-5 times daily assits health and fitness.

Islam

    "Will we continue to argue, to condemn, to fight and kill one another; or will we sit down and counsel with one another in seeking a just solution to the problems that beset us in America and in the world? Wisdom decrees that in counsel and in dialogue is the way to peace. Foolishness decrees that if we ignore the warning signs, we will fall into the deeper abyss of Hell. God is the Judge today; and most surely upon Him do the Believers rely! Tynetta Muhammad
browse Islam Map(s)

lunarchick - 01:48pm Nov 17, 2002 EST (# 5858 of 5863)

Maps

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