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 - 03:58pm Jan 19, 2003 EST (# 7816 of 7819)
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.

rshow55 - 12:22pm Jan 2, 2003 EST (# 7220

"Almarst , thanks for this reference.

"Saddam just made a step (I'm assuming he controls his son) that makes the weights of the arguments in favor of attacking Iraq very much stronger - the arguments for believing the inspection process can work very much weaker. It seems a clear mistake - and I believe that sensible power holders in Iraq ought to agree - after Iraq has invested so much on the inspection process.

. Arabs urged to seek nuclear arsenal By PAUL KORING . . Thursday, January 2 – Posted at 5:37 AM EST http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/RTGAMArticleHTMLTemplate?tf=tgam/realtime/fullstory_print.html&cf=tgam/realtime/config-neutral&articleDate=20030102&slug=wxnuke0102&date=20030102&archive=RTGAM&site=Front

Washington — The Arab world should follow North Korea's example and arm itself with nuclear weapons to prevent further humiliation at U.S. hands, a leading Iraqi newspaper owned by Saddam Hussein's son said yesterday.

"Korea insists on its right to possess a technology used by the United States to raze Japanese cities, and which it still uses to blackmail the world and force it to obey," the newspaper Babel said as it urged the Arab world to take heed.

"Arabs need to learn the lesson from the Korean example," it added, calling on Arabs to launch a joint effort to acquire nuclear weapons.

- - - - - - - -

"That's unfortunate. Mohammed, Aldouri, or Saddam himself, ought to think hard about repairing the damage. Such a stance makes nonsense of the statements in

. Iraq States Its Case By MOHAMMED ALDOURI http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/17/opinion/17ALDO.html

rshow55 12/12/02 8:34pm

"It seems to me that if Iraq does not have weapons of mass destruction - - there are some very interesting questions about communication and human function at play - where indignation can only be a part of the response. But where concern is well justified.

"Some while ago, I said this:

Right now, if Saddam has really done what he claims - - then his regime is absolutely safe - if he's half-way competent - - as he often is.

"The piece Koring reports on is stunningly unhelpful from Iraq's point of view - from the Islamic world's point of view - and responsible people from all sides should have sense enough to know it.

. . . .

If we have a fight now, it will be a better, more focused fight for all the effort people have gone to. And if Iraq is really prepared to do as it says in Iraq States Its Case By MOHAMMED ALDOURI http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/17/opinion/17ALDO.html it should be possible for the Iraqi-US crisis to resolve in ways that reinforce international law - and work well for the whole world. Iraq, including its military, its civilian government, and its scientific infrastructure, would have plenty to do meeting the needs of its own people - asking - again and again and again "what happens to the children" - the children of Iraq - as they actually are -- from where they are. Some changes, some exceptions, would have to be implemented so that, though the logic might be "fear first" -- it couldn't be "fear above all, and all the time, always." Saddam's moved so far that if he wanted to implement real, active cooperation with the inspection process - he could do so, and keep his job. Or leave safely, and have other Iraqis do so. It seems to me that if we have a fight now - it will be a better, smaller fight because of negotiations that have occur. And if we can make peace - it will be a better, more stable peace than would have been possible a while back.

There has to be less repression in Iraq, in a number of senses. But the US can't, and shouldn't, ask that repression in every sense be eliminated. That would be impossible. We couldn't do it ourselves.

rshow55 - 03:59pm Jan 19, 2003 EST (# 7817 of 7819)
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.

Some situations flop around a good deal before they find a stable form. Lunarchick reminded me yesterday of the difference between dither - random perturbations - that can keep a situation from getting stuck -and oscillations - that can repeat in an orderly way which makes harmonious and stable results possible. Pretty often, it is dither that comes first. Oscillatory solutions can sometimes happen after things are close enough to a desirable point for stability to be possible.

Pardon me for moving slowly. I've got an ugly story to tell that I think is important - and I'm trying to do it clearly, and gracefully.

(2 following messages)

New York Times on the Web Forums Science Missile Defense