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.

gisterme - 06:05pm Dec 21, 2002 EST (# 6910 of 6916)

commondata 12/21/02 2:52pm

"...How plausible is it that any state will commit suicide by firing a nuke at you, and how do you think you can make it less plausible?..."

Not plausible at all, commondata. Umm, in case you haven't noticed, the principal who has declared and instigated the current war does not claim any state. As a matter of fact, we're not yet completely sure, at least publically, who the ultimate perpatrator of this war is.

Robert is always generalizing about this or that "on many levels", just using the buzz words without ever mentioning what the levels are, of course.

I think the organizaton of the enemy in this war includes several levels. At the top level there's the "big boss", who in my opinion is yet to be recognized. He is one but not one. They're the heart and soul. At another level there are leaders of some states who are attempting to covertly support the heart and soul, hoping to receive the promise of power and glory, perhaps paradise on earth. These are the muscles and flesh. At yet another level there are "organizations" that are the working tools used by heart, soul and muscles to make things happen. These are the teeth and claws. We call them terrorists. Their motivation is also power, glory and paradise. At another level there are passive support organizations who provide information, place, money and whatever other help they can. These are the less obvious organs that help enable the heart and soul, muscles, teeth and claws. They expect paradise. Finally, at the lowest level, there's the blood. It consists of myriad simple people, mostly opressed, who unknowingly support the entire beast, who unknowingly bear its weight, who bear its pain and provide themselves to be sacreficed, never knowing that's what they are doing, not really understanding the source of their hurting...mostly ignorant of what they are a part of, mostly innocent, mostly motivated to do what they do by hoping to live another day. Mostly blood for the spilling.

The leaders of states involved in all this have done their best to remain anonymous, commondata. Their treachery will not remain hidden...the light will come on and the shadows those leaders slink around in will vanish. They will find themselves to be quite naked in public.

That process has already begun in Iraq and NK, and those "leaders" now appear kind of pitiful really. They're just common thugs, holding their people hostage while trying to hang on to power. They're hiding within the multitude of their own people...like a fleas on a chimp...hiding among the hairs. Those are fleas that once picked will make Iraq and NK two less places for the father of fleas to plant his offspring. In that sense the world is getting selectively smaller. As lchic said... "no where, no one, to hop to".

I wouldn't expect a ballistic missile to be launched from anywhere that would be predicted by conventional thinkers, commondata. If one is launched it will be from a location or platform that would attempt to maintain the anonymity of the perpatrator and perhaps even to lay blame where it doesn't belong...expect the exact same strategy as with the other suicide attacks only on a different scale.

I wouldn't care to be one of the missileers behind such an attack even though they might manage to launch thier missile successfully and survive. That's because they will have to become "martyrs" anyway just to make sure that one of them doesn't spill the beans. It's just the bosses who aren't quite so anxious to fall into the embrace of paradise.

I'd wager that suicide is not an option for the evil who is ultimately behind the suicide cult. This evil is the heart and soul of a beast that is the construct of all those levels of organizaton. This beast and its true masters are hidden within the sea of humanity, and for me, "Leviathan" is the na

gisterme - 06:07pm Dec 21, 2002 EST (# 6911 of 6916)

gisterme 12/21/02 6:05pm (cotinued)

This beast and its true masters are hidden within the sea of humanity, and for me, "Leviathan" is the name that all this brings to mind.

I can't help but believe that the end of all this will represent a true cardinal point in human history. A point in history that will be viewed as the boundary of two epochs, a point that differentiates those things that came before from those that come after...at least as significant as the "BC" and "AD" we use for speaking of historical dates.

(5 following messages)

New York Times on the Web Forums Science Missile Defense