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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 - 11:48am Jan 31, 2003 EST (# 8390 of 8391)
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.

Blix Says He Saw Nothing to Prompt a War By JUDITH MILLER and JULIA PRESTON http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/31/international/middleeast/31BLIX.html

UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 30 — Days after delivering a broadly negative report on Iraq's cooperation with international inspectors, Hans Blix on Wednesday challenged several of the Bush administration's assertions about Iraqi cheating and the notion that time was running out for disarming Iraq through peaceful means.

Thinking back over what has happened since MD5117 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?9@93.d6iTabg413V.131674@.f28e622/6438 - - it seems to me that there is work to do - and understanding to do - and negotiation to do - with some understanding of real human limits. If Iraq has failed to do some things - has that been a conspiracy - a defiance - or has it been a case where an organization, and its leaders, agreed to something that they found they could not do exactly as agreed - for various reasons. (That sort of mistake happens all the time - and people negotiate through such problems routinely - when they want to.) People need to think of each other as human beings - and think harder about what that means. There are plenty of things to say against Saddam and the Iraqis, no matter how one may view their claims for good intentions. It is clear that, in some significant ways, the Iraqis have put out a good deal of hard effort - mistakes, mixed feelings, hostilities, and all.. Plenty of things can be said against the Bush administration as well - and many of them are similar.

I do think that it might be a good idea for Saddam to retire. Though he might be able to do a good job as leader of Iraq - a great deal of the past sticks to him -and other people might be able to go on from here in ways better for Iraq - and more comfortable for the whole world. I know this. I'd love a chance to work with Saddam - spend time with Saddam - cooperate with Saddam - if that were permitted by circumstances. Saddam is an excellent administrator - and could teach the whole world a great deal about how to build a secular Arab state that at least functions efficiently in some ways. There is a tremendous need for the Islamic nations to learn how to do that sort of thing better - and regardless of what has happened in the past - it seems to me that Saddam might to do great good - make a great contribution to the Islamic world - and the world as a whole - by doing that. Of course, I'm sure he wouldn't want to work with me - but on subjects of that kind, I'd be honored for the chance to work with him, if I could find a humanly workable way to do so.

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