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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.

rshow55 - 11:42am Jan 20, 2003 EST (# 7836 of 7845)
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.

"Taking the issue to the Security Council could be the first step to imposing sanctions on North Korea but Bolton said he had not discussed sanctions in his talks in Beijing and sanctions were not the only weapon in the Security Council's arsenal.

"North Korea has said sanctions would be tantamount to a declaration of war.

"South Korea said it would use meetings this week with Red Cross officials and cabinet ministers of North Korea to press Pyongyang to end the nuclear impasse.

"North Korea has insisted that the United States, which a year ago bracketed the North together with Iraq and Iran in an ``axis of evil,'' is key to resolving the standoff.

``The nuclear problem on the Korean peninsula was created by the United States and must be wholly resolved with us and the United States sitting knee-to-knee,'' the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) quoted one official as telling Losyukov.

"The United States has moved away from its original refusal to talk but wants the North to dismantle its nuclear program.

``NO ATTACK ON SOUTH''

"In an apparent bid to drive a wedge between South Korea and the U.S. troops who have guarded it since the 1950-53 Korean War, Pyongyang's consul-general in Hong Kong told a newspaper that North Korea had no intention to attack the South.

``If the United States attacks us, we'll only go after our enemy,'' the Chinese-language Ming Pao daily quoted the diplomat, Ri To Sop, as saying.

``We and South Korea are of the same lineage and the same country, we share the same language and culture. There's no reason for us to harm our relationship with South Korea,'' he said, but repeated Pyongyang's threat to declare war if the United States imposed sanctions.

"The North has 11,000 artillery pieces trained toward Seoul across the most heavily fortified frontier on earth.

"Secretary of State Colin Powell dismissed suggestions of war and rejected comparisons of the administration's approach to North Korea with its effort to force Iraq to disarm.

"Washington is searching for a diplomatic solution to persuade Pyongyang to abandon its suspected nuclear-weapons program, but has threatened Iraq with war if it fails to cooperate with U.N. weapons inspectors."

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Let me repeat the last line, with modifications:

"Washington is searching for a diplomatic solution (in a search including threats) to persuade Pyongyang to abandon its suspected nuclear-weapons program, but has threatened Iraq with war if it fails to cooperate with U.N. weapons inspectors (in the search for a diplomatic solution now underway with Iraq) ."

It seems to me that the patterns described are consistent with good solutions for everybody directly involved, and for the whole world.

commondata - 12:19pm Jan 20, 2003 EST (# 7837 of 7845)

Let me repeat that again with further modifications:

"Washington is searching for a diplomatic solution (in a search including threats) to persuade Pyongyang to abandon its suspected nuclear-weapons program, but has threatened Iraq with an illegal war to dominate oil reserves if it fails to cooperate with U.N. weapons inspectors."

It seems to me that the emboldened words are consistent with bad solutions for the whole world.

rshow55 - 12:36pm Jan 20, 2003 EST (# 7838 of 7845)
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.

I think a good solution to the Iraqi situation could, and should, be arranged so that it offers US commercial and government interest no advantages with respect to Iraqi oil - or clear de facto disadvantages compared to other nations - notably Russia, Germany, and France.

I don't have any reason to doubt that a solution of that sort - that was also plainly acceptable to the security and stability needs of the United States, would be acceptable to the Bush administration.

There are some cynical folks in that administration, I've sometimes suspected. But not so cynical that I've ever believed the conflict with Iraq has been "about" oil.

commondata - 12:40pm Jan 20, 2003 EST (# 7839 of 7845)

I think a good solution to the Iraqi situation could, and should, be arranged so that it offers US commercial and government interest no advantages with respect to Iraqi oil.

I couldn't agree more and if many of Bush's detractors aren't correct in their assumptions then such a statement would have been made months ago.

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