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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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fredmoore - 04:08pm Nov 21, 2002 EST (# 6052 of 6070)

Rshow ...

Is this the kind of defence we should be aiming 4?

The movie "Pups" with Burt Reynolds has so many parallels with US V Iraq. I think Burt Reynolds would do a better job of understanding Saddam Hussein than Donald Duck (Rumsfeld).

Provided Saddam is not 'barking mad' he is probably straight out of 'boy's own manual', has great and valuable insight and has his back to the wall on several hostile borders in a land locked country. These are things that people in the US do not understand fully, just as Saddam does not fully understand the consequences accruing from his actions in a modern televised world.

Like I said .... PUPS.

So, open some diplomatic channels between Saddam, Burt Reynolds and the movie's director and ... can we please change the end of the script to a more disciplined one with US bases in Baghdad and a worry free Saddam providing his primal insight to solving some of the middle east's problems. Iraq was the cradle of civilisation ... a delicate thing ... only a monster like Saddam is capable of protecting. I think it is incumbent on the rest of the world to understand Saddam has value and if appropriate end the tension by neutralising border threats to a country which has great human potential and therefore a lot of envious neighbours. Neighbours who are likely more dangerous to the US than one might imagine.

OTOH if Saddam is intractable to Mr Reynolds you can always go back to plan A and bomb the F### out of Iraq.

rshow55 - 04:27pm Nov 21, 2002 EST (# 6053 of 6070)
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.

Burt Reynolds might not be the very best guy - but the idea of getting Saddam connected to movie folks makes a LOT of sense. Not long ago, PEOPLE magazine did a special "The 100 Greatest Movie Stars of Our Time."

Any one of those stars might be able to organize a better interaction with Saddam than Rumsfeld - for either peace or war. Though, for either one, Rumsfeld might be a player.

For both the Iraqi mess, and the North Korean mess - the question -- "how would you make a movie of this" - - is a very good question.

Because negotiations and complex cooperations in movies are complicated enough and sophisticated enough to do a lot of things our State and Defense Department just can't match.

(An easy idea: Kline's index of complexity, C http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee7b085/385 V + P + L < C < V times P times L )

Another thing is this. If only we really had lines of communication with the Iraqis or Koreans good enough to match the complexity peacemaking requires - on ANY subject - - we'd have a good chance of finding ways to get the level of communication we really need for peacemaking.

Movies are not only cheaper than wars, they're also nicer - though the emotions run high - not quite so high.

If you can't cooperate with folks at the level movie making takes - odds are you can't make a workable peace with them.

If you can cooperate with folks at the level movie making takes - - odds are you can, if a workable, stable, just basis for peace actually exists. For both N. Korea and Iraq, it does.

rshow55 - 05:56pm Nov 21, 2002 EST (# 6054 of 6070)
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.

fredmoore 11/21/02 4:08pm - - Jesse Ventura has some interesting connections, theatrical, literary, political, and aesthetic - as well.

Perhaps, as an example of peacemaking, Ventura and Garrison Keillor could feild an all - Minnesota team !

With New York and Hollywood connections.

lunarchick - 06:32pm Nov 21, 2002 EST (# 6055 of 6070)

Cradles of civilisation change location.

Cradles built as a system of water channel irrigation - silt up ... mud up ... dry up.

The 'spare cash' or 'rent' the 10% tythe is lost.

The people migrate - elsewhere.

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