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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?

Read Debates, a new Web-only feature culled from Readers' Opinions, published every Thursday.

lunarchick - 10:02pm Dec 27, 2002 EST (# 7096 of 7114)

Hillary Clinton ---- wants the POOR of the USA not to be denied benefits!

The American System seems heartless!

mazza9 - 10:43pm Dec 27, 2002 EST (# 7097 of 7114)
"Quae cum ita sunt" Caesar's Gallic Commentaries

lunarchick:What a load of cow plops!

answer me one question. Name the one country in the world that has given more of its time, talents and treasure for the betterment of all mankind?

BTW, we as a nation are disappointed that the economy is bad because our charitable giving has been reduced. Asked again, what country is as generous with its time, talent, and treasure then any other country in the world.

ANSWER: The American system that you so despise!

commondata - 01:44am Dec 28, 2002 EST (# 7098 of 7114)

mazza9 12/27/02 10:43pm - Name the one country in the world that has given more of its time, talents and treasure for the betterment of all mankind?

It's always a pleasure to oblige, Mazza. Denmark, Kuwait, Norway, Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom, Portugal, Spain, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Greece:

Responsibility Sharing Report 1997 - 1999.

And things haven't got ant better since; from http://www.cbpp.org/4-25-00bud.pdf:

Measured either as a share of the U.S. economy or as a share of the federal budget, the decline over recent decades in U.S. development aid has been striking ... By fiscal year 2003, U.S. development aid as a share of the economy and as a share of the federal budget would reach the lowest levels on record ... The United States ranks the lowest of all 21 OECD countries examined in the share of national resources devoted to development aid for poor countries.

US spending is high on "defense", high on naval force tonnage, low on foreign assistance, low on multinational peace operations personnel, low on multinational reaction force:

http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/allied_contrib2001/chartI-1a.html

lunarchick - 07:42am Dec 28, 2002 EST (# 7099 of 7114)

Commondata seems to have covered that quite adequately 'Poster' ...

.... word has it that Hillary may get up and run for the Demo's ...

... a Whitehouse of DYNASTYS ... Bush|Clinton|Bush|Clinton ... then Laura ... but which party would she actually run for?

lunarchick - 08:47am Dec 28, 2002 EST (# 7100 of 7114)

Iraq | Hans von Sponeck: Bush administration bunch of ....

http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.3ba79bb3/10

rshow55 - 09:15am Dec 28, 2002 EST (# 7101 of 7114)
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.

But, making some allowances that have to be made - this is an excellent idea - or could evolve into one. Maybe gisterme didn't have anything to do with it - but if (s)he did - I think (s)he's to be commended:

Bush Aides Back Effort for U.N. Denunciation of North Korea By DAVID E. SANGER http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/28/international/asia/28PREX.html

The Bush administration decided to back an effort to have the Security Council declare that North Korea is violating the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

• North Korea Orders Inspectors Out
• Graphic: Plutonium From Spent Nuclear Fuel

I've been swamped, and muddled in spots - but looking back - this has been a good year - and I don't think, in terms of what I can know, that we're so very far, logically, from the hopes expressed in Someday At Christmas by Stevie Wonder http://www.webfitz.com/lyrics/Lyrics/xmas/97xmas.html .

There's hard work to do - but hard work is going on. And a lot of the logic looks convergent to me. Though I'm just guessing, and I blow these guesses often enough . . . about 10% of the time, over the last few years.

MD7000 rshow55 12/24/02 5:24pm

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