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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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rshow55 - 08:29pm Dec 28, 2002 EST (# 7105 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.

mazza9 12/28/02 5:52pm . . . How much different is the "price" on American lives, compared to the price on Russian lives, or French lives, or British lives, or Chinese lives, or Vietnamese lives, or Iraqi live, or Korean lives . . . or other lives?

From American perspective, very different. Rightly so.

But how different is the price of other lives from a Russsian, or French, or UK, or Chinese, or Vietnamese, or Iraqi, or Korean perspective. . . or a United Nations perspective?

How different should these prices be?

I thought mazza9 12/28/02 5:52pm was wrenchingly ugly - because it was both so cocksure - and so historically distorted. ( In WWI, the US played something similar to the role of the straw, in the "straw that broke the camel's back." -- and in WWII, the US had leadership - but a look at figures for death and wounded would give one pause.

There are problems in the situation in Iraq, but all the same, a great deal in international relations and international law was clarified - and put into context in the UN discussions that have happened about Iraq in the last four months -and discussions that are ongoing.

Much more can be accomplished if the North Korean situation is discussed as clearly.

lunarchick 12/28/02 6:16pm - - is right. What makes human sense now?

That question can be reasonably discussed, without any forgetting of the past. We need to remember the past - and not only the pretty parts.

THREATS TO USE NUCLEAR WEAPONS: The Sixteen Known Nuclear Crises of the Cold War, 1946-1985 by David R. Morgan http://scienceforpeace.sa.utoronto.ca/WorkingGroupsPage/NucWeaponsPage/Documents/ThreatsNucWea.html sets out a record that most Americans never knew about. Things that most Americans should know about.

Maybe, from the North Korean perspective, and from the perspective of many other people, the evil isn't all on one side.

MD7090 rshow55 12/27/02 8:43pm

7001-7002 rshow55 12/24/02 7:33pm

7091-93 rshow55 12/27/02 9:09pm

What about the golden rule ? http://www.mrshowalter.net/a_md01000s/DetailNGR.htm

The North Korean mess is ugly - but it isn't going to blow up the whole world, as the conflict between Russian and the US easily could have (in large part because of agressive stances on the part of the US). Perhaps in resolving the Korean mess, with the Arab world looking on - and with the things said in the negotiations about Iraq remembered - we can take steps to see that the world is considerably safer.

An illustrated script of Casablanca http://www.edict.com.hk/movies/casablanca/casablanca1.htm

Casablanca is common ground, something culturally literate Americans know -- and that people the whole world over understand, at the level of sympathy, and intellectually, too. I used the movie as a point of departure in PSYCHWAR, CASABLANCA, AND TERROR , which tells a key story about the Cold War, interesting to American, Russians, and others. http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee7a163/0 Especially the core story part, from posting 13 http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee7a163/12 to posting 23 http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee7a163/22 There is a comment in #26 that I feel some may find interesting, as well...

These days, the United States often looks far too much like Germany, as depicted in Casablanca - - though of course they are differences. In Casablanca , Germans aren't depicted as racists - but they are arrogant, merciless bullies.

None of the goo

rshow55 - 08:34pm Dec 28, 2002 EST (# 7106 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.

None of the good things about the United States would change, if we changed the times when we act like arrogant, merciless bullies. There is good reason to discuss a good deal about the North Korean crisis at the U.N. - - and comments and posts by almarst since March 2001 would be well worth looking at - in addition to other arguments.

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New York Times on the Web Forums Science Missile Defense