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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 - 05:59pm Jan 26, 2003 EST (# 8139 of 8145)
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.

Not all the wrongs are on one side - and not all the accomplishments are on one side, either. But we need to note that we have some fundamental differences with the Islamic countries that need to be recognized, and dealt with - because unless they are - we have no chance of resolving the things that need to be resolved - with or without war.

I've referred to Rita Hayworth from time to time - because she's a superb star and dancer - and married a typically Western figure - Orson Wells - and a typically Islamic figure who exemplifies some of the deepest conflicts we have with the Islamic world - Aly Khan. Rita Hayworth Biography http://members.tripod.com/~claudia79/bio.html . . . http://members.tripod.com/~claudia79/middle.html

Here is Clive James on Ali Khan, from FAME in the 20th Century - Random House

"Aly Khan was like his father the Aga Khan all over again, but the old Aga had been famous only for racehorses and an annual salary of his own weight in diamonds. Aly was famous for marrying Rita Hayworth. He was famous for succeeding with a lot of other women who were married to other men. He travelled between love affairs in a succession of fast cars. "They call me a w*p and a n**ger," he said, "and I ____ their wives."

Many of these wives were married to senior military officers in the UK during WWII - and many of the stories aren't pretty.

Rita Hayworth married him knowing about his conduct - and it would be amazing if she married him expecting to change it.

More recently, a surgeon from an Arab country messed up Lady Diana in every way that has to matter to the royal family - the story is that Diana was so out of control about him that she met him, with servants in attendance - wearing a fur coat and nothing else.

Were Aly Khan and this surgeon honorable men in Arab terms? The answer, unfortunately, is much too near to an affirmative for comfort. Most Iraqis, both male and female - would probably have approved of such conduct - cheered it on - and regarded as welcome proof of the superiority of their culture to that of the West. Part of the deal in Islam is subordination of females - but along with this subordination is an active interest - explicit in the religion and the culture - in sexual pleasure for females. We have some very great differences here - in areas very likely to lead to fights and ugliness - we've got plenty of ugliness and injury already -and we need to think carefully about what the people involved - Islamic and Western - actually can do - as they are - with the cultures and precedents that actually exist. We need to understand how profoundly different the Islamic and Christian attitudes toward honor - on some very key points - actually are. Something so simple as a war - especially a war fought on a naive basis -won't change them. It is not going to be an easy trick getting Iraq to change into something GWB will sympathize with.

We have to come to more workable agreements with the Islamic nations that we have. When sexual restrictions are a central part of their institutional rigidity - we need to know it - not repress our knowledge of it, and simply dismiss them as "evil".

Iraq should really disarm - and we have a right to make sure that it does. But we need to be a good deal more sensitive than we are to what we can reasonably ask for. If we ignore some central reasons for our disagreements - we won't be able to find accomodations that the people involved can actually live with.

lchic - 06:01pm Jan 26, 2003 EST (# 8140 of 8145)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

An Islamic high court in northern Nigeria rejected an appeal yesterday by a single mother sentenced to be stoned to death ... Clutching her baby daughter, Amina Lawal burst into tears as the judge delivered the ruling.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/story.jsp?story=325978

Nigeria - one sick nation ...

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lchic - 06:08pm Jan 26, 2003 EST (# 8141 of 8145)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

Historically the 'male viewpoint' has dominated politics

Women's votes, rights and needs at an International political level are a recent phenomena.

Males dominated in economies geared towards 'male upper arm strength - bicepts muscle lift' ... the fork lift truch is a 'recent' innovation ... that takes the lift efficiently within economies.

The economy IS a part of the environment -- and that dictates need.

Improving economies is a means of re-shaping environment -- reshaping demand and necessarily freeing up some outdated, outmoded, ancient male-viewpoint concepts.

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