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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.

almarst2002 - 05:55pm Feb 6, 2003 EST (# 8650 of 8660)

Colin Powell's Legend - http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/colin.html

Behind Colin Powell's Legend: A Warning -- Gen. Colin Powell's career as a military bureaucrat often has been viewed through rose-colored glasses rather than a clear eye. But critics, including some who served in Vietnam, feel Powell may have carried the wrong lessons out of the bloody jungles. (6-24-96) Behind Colin Powell's Legend: Lesson's from Vietnam -- Powell's service in Vietnam distinguished him as a "water-walker." But what were the hard lessons of war he learned in the Vietnam jungles? (7-8-96) Behind Colin Powell's Legend: My Lai -- When American specialist fourth class Tom Glen accused American soldiers in the Americal division of routine brutality against Vietnamese civilians, Maj. Powell undertook the assignment to review Glen's complaints. Powell's report derided Glen's charges and showed Powell to be the consummate team player. (7-22-96) Behind Colin Powell's Legend: Pentagon-Man -- The middle years of Powell's military career were a time for networking and advancement. Here, Powell learned that a military bureaucrat succeeds best by sidestepping controversy and keeping quiet when superiors screw up. (8-5-96) Behind Colin Powell's Legend: Back to the Future -- When Colin Powell returned to Washington in the early '80s, he returned to the terrain he knew best--a professional home he often called "Ground Zero." On the fast track to success, Powell became deeply entangled in Reagan/Casey war-games. (8-19-96) Behind Colin Powell's Legend: Iran-Contra Amnesia -- In 1984-85, Colin Powell was the "filter" for information flowing to Defense Secretary Casper Weinburger. But what kind of information flowed through the "filter?" (9-2-96) Behind Colin Powell's Legend: Arms to Iran -- Would the disastrous Iran-contra scandal have happened without Colin Powell's work as Defense Secretary Casper Weinburger's "filter?" (9-16-96) Behind Colin Powell's Legend: Saving Reagan -- Just as Colin Powell played an important behind-the-scenes role in missile shipments to Iran, he would be equally instrumental in the next phase, the scandal's cover-up in 1987-88. (9-30-96) Behind Colin Powell's Legend: Panama War -- Going by the "Powell Doctrine" that "it is better to win than to loose," Powell shows his stuff in Panama. (10-14-96) Behind Colin Powell's Legend: Arms to Iraq? -- Newly declassified documents suggest that Powell was a player in the secret U.S. policy to supply Saddam Hussein with military equipment. (11-11-96) Behind Colin Powell's Legend: Dodging Peace -- Powell played a key role in ensuring a ground war pitting American troops against an Iraqi enemy trying to surrender. (11/25/96) Behind Colin Powell's Legend: The Media Icon -- Though the media has unanimously embraced him, Colin Powell's record deserves further review. (12/9/96)

almarst2002 - 06:08pm Feb 6, 2003 EST (# 8651 of 8660)

Beth Osborne Daponte was a 29-year-old Commerce Dept. demographer in 1992, when she publicly contradicted then-Defense Secretary Richard Cheney on the highly sensitive issue of Iraqi civilian casualties during the Gulf War. In short order, Daponte was told she was losing her job. - http://www.msnbc.com/news/869570.asp?0si=-&cp1=1

rshow55 - 07:14pm Feb 6, 2003 EST (# 8652 of 8660)
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.

Bush Says 'Game Is Over' for Iraq and Urges U.N. to Act By BRIAN KNOWLTON International Herald Tribune http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/06/international/middleeast/06CND-IRAQ.html includes this:

"Mr. Powell said earlier on CBS-TV that only a substantive change in policy by Mr. Hussein could now avert war, ``not just another way to play cat-and-mouse with the inspectors.''

"``So, in my judgment,'' he added, ``it will not be enough for him to simply say, 'Okay, I'll now start to allow the U-2 flights' '' that inspectors want in support of their ground efforts.

"``He needs to come clean.''

That's been a consistent position for months. There are questions of proportion - and Powell is a soldier, not what Kipling refers to as a "plaster saint" - but that still seems reasonable to me.

The US doesn't have to be flawless to ask for an international law that is actually lawful - with enforcement. I've had plenty of concerns about US policy - and they continue - but the US, it seems to me - is acting forcefully - but, within the human limits, as it understands them - responsibly - to get some situations that are dangerous and have been festering to a point where they can actually be solved.

There are plenty of people involved who want to solve the problem without war - but Iraq is supposed to actually disarm. It could.

With discussion, the risk of war reduces, and issues focus so that if there is fighting, it should be more focused, with more stable and reasonable results.

Turks Say U.S. Can Upgrade Bases There By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 6:41 p.m. ET http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Turkey-US-Iraq.html

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