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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 - 04:41pm Feb 6, 2003 EST (# 8647 of 8651)
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.

http://www.channel4.com/news/home/z/stories/20030206/dossier.html IS very serious. Members of the Security Council ought to ask some correspondingly serious questions.

The Case Against Iraq http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/06/opinion/06THU1.html ends

" The Security Council, the American people and the rest of the world have an obligation to study Mr. Powell's presentation very closely and very seriously. Because the consequences of war are so terrible, and the cost of rebuilding Iraq so great, the United States cannot afford to confront Iraq without broad international support."

There is good reason to distrust Iraq. Alas, there is good reason to distrust any country - including the United States, to the degree that it is run for the benefit of military people - and to distrust any other nation state that relies on military people as a source of it's "unbiased truth."

For military people - including the best of them -truth is a value subordinated to a number of others - and it is usually not permitted to think of an "enemy" as a human being. And enemies are everywhere, according to the military culture. One shudders to think, for example, what might happen to a United States military officer who told a clear truth disadvantageous to his service to a Congressional Committee.

Is there some deception among the Iraqis?

There is some deception most times when a ranking American officer inspects his subordinates - and everybody knows it, or it seems to me that everybody should.

Sometimes, ranking officers may forget the influence of the military culture. And forget that, within the culture - there are ties that bind that make inspection by "enemies" difficult - and make unbiased record keeping - or record revelation difficult.

rshow55 - 04:42pm Feb 6, 2003 EST (# 8648 of 8651)
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.

No one need doubt that General James L. Jones , now the head of NATO, is a superb and honorable officer. And, as events proved, well intentioned. On March 14 I quoted General Jones, who was then Commandant of the Marine Corps, from this article:

http://www.mrshowalter.net/a_md00100s/md978_981.htm

Marine Corps Gen. May Drop Osprey-----March 13, 2001 .... by ..THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Gen. James L. Jones "disputed the claim of some critics that he and his service have become so enamored of the Osprey that they are blind to its vulnerabilities.

- ``I would resist with all my moral fiber the idea that we would willingly or knowingly try to bring aboard a program -- the V-22 or anything else -- that we've so fallen in love with that we would put people at risk,'' he said. ``We just simply wouldn't do that, and I don't think we've done that.''

Such sentiments, in public, inhibit officers from investigating such conduct - but to the enormous credit of the Marine Corps - there was an investigation in the Osprey case, and some deception was found.

Eight Marine Officers Are Charged in Osprey False-Records Case by CHRISTOPHER MARQUIS http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/18/national/18OSPR.html

http://www.mrshowalter.net/a_md11000s/md11183.htm

The fact that the Marines investigated themselves is a tremendous credit to the Corps, I believe - other US services might not have done so well. And the Iraqi military may have a lower standard, too. Even if the top people in the Iraqi Army were to ask, as best they could, for disarmament - there might well be some hiding of arms.

That doesn't mean that Iraq shouldn't really disarm. It does mean that some problems and hesitation along the way are to be expected.

and http://www.channel4.com/news/home/z/stories/20030206/dossier.html casts some serious doubt on Secretary Powell's presentation - for reasons that Secretary Powell almost certainly didn't deserve.

We have to be careful to get right answers - answers that remember how human beings, and military forces, actually are - not how we might wish them to be.

almarst2002 - 04:49pm Feb 6, 2003 EST (# 8649 of 8651)

Colin Powell showed satellite photos, but refused to say where he took them from - http://english.pravda.ru/main/2003/02/06/43068.html

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