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.

rshow55 - 09:09pm Dec 27, 2002 EST (# 7091 of 7100)
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.

http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee7a163/348

Explosive instabilities:
4426 rshow55 9/19/02 3:34pm

. . .

I've been doing my duty: 4429 rshow55 9/19/02 8:39pm

. Links to CIA and my security problems:
3773-3778 rshow55 8/17/02 4:58pm

For us to lessen inhumanity in the future - - we have to deal with things that have happened - within the limitations that we can actually make work - as things are.

I believe these postings from February 27th, 2001 - a few days before almarst was invited on the board - are worth posting again. 358-367 http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee7b085/401

I hoped Putin would read that briefing http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee7b085/383 340-355.

If Americans would read the same briefing, they might be clearer on the reasons why there is plenty of talking to do with the North Koreans - and it doesn't make either moral or intellectual sense to dismiss them as inhuman, and evil, and try to bully them into submission.

We've been at that, steadily, for half a century and it hasn't worked. It has also been wrenchingly ugly. We should find ways to do better - we have the intellectual, and economic, as well as military power to do so.

lunarchick - 09:10pm Dec 27, 2002 EST (# 7092 of 7100)

IF .... if the USA didn't have the

big-guns

rshow55 - 09:26pm Dec 27, 2002 EST (# 7093 of 7100)
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.

In Details and the Golden Rule http://www.mrshowalter.net/a_md01000s/DetailNGR.htm , originally on Guardian Talk, a "WilliamJUSA" - who had some suspisciously presidential postings, posted this:

wildem21 - 04:23pm May 28, 2001 BST (#30 of 41) THE GOLDEN RULE is, was, and ever shall be:

The one with the gold makes the rules.

------------------------------------------

willjusa - 04:41pm May 28, 2001 BST (#31 of 41)

Or its corollary: Those with the guns make the rules. Or as Capone put it: "You can get a lot further with a kind word and a gun then you can with a kind word alone."

- - - -

The United States has guns as a backup - and a lot of economic power, too. But too often we forget, first, how much intellectual power the United States has, deserves, and uses gracefully. We also forget that people in other nations are human beings , who don't like to be bullied - but are willing to be consulted - talked to - and persuaded.

Sometimes, when we act like bullies, we're our own worst enemies. We make those who oppose us look good.

And devalue the honor and dignity of the United States in clumsy ways that add to our risk, and cost us money as well.

lunarchick - 09:30pm Dec 27, 2002 EST (# 7094 of 7100)

So when folks say they are against the USA

(and kill others just to underline that point)

they are actually saying they are against bullying ...

Whoever made BULLet-proof armour might turn their attentions to BULLy-proofing !

lunarchick - 09:36pm Dec 27, 2002 EST (# 7095 of 7100)

Australia is very good at 'sporting' .. and it doesn't 'just happen' .... it's a matter that looks to science, that takes hours of time over years per sporting individual. Being 'good', being 'best', being 'tops', isn't the pure 'chance' one once imagined.

Working for peace might be a little like going for gold in a sporting event - to lose is war, to win is peace. Peace is won via hours of purposeful negotiation - with desired outcomes in the areas that affect people also known and understood. Peace is about whole populations working towards and for new directives that bind them with common purpose - happily!

(5 following messages)

New York Times on the Web Forums Science Missile Defense