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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 - 10:31pm Feb 11, 2003 EST (# 8825 of 8829)

Bin Laden offers tips to defend Iraq - http://www.guardian.co.uk/alqaida/story/0,12469,893898,00.html

Bin Laden Tape: The Real Story - http://www.antiwar.com/justin/j021203.html

The story become even more interesting...

lchic - 07:58am Feb 12, 2003 EST (# 8826 of 8829)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

TONY BENN ~~~ Dateline SBS au

Benn (UK)

is enjoying a 'cult status and following' in the UK .... he's for peace as are the 400,000 Brits associated with 'peace'.

Feb 12th 2003 http://www.sbs.com.au/dateline/

lchic - 08:13am Feb 12, 2003 EST (# 8827 of 8829)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

How did the Bush-the-father tv war, and the dragging-draining war in what was Yugoslavia affect the life of regular tv-viewers?

had refugees knocking on the UK's Door

yet MORE refugees may not be the way people think ... how many can the ONE town take?

rshow55 - 09:43am Feb 12, 2003 EST (# 8828 of 8829)
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.

Present at . . . What? By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/12/opinion/12FRIE.html

"The tension that is now rising within the Western alliance, NATO and the U.N. over how to deal with Iraq is deeply disturbing. It raises fears that the postwar security system, which stabilized the world for 50 years, could come unglued if America intervenes alone in Iraq. At the birth of this security system, Secretary of State Dean Acheson wrote a memoir titled "Present at the Creation." Can we deal with Iraq and still ensure that Secretary of State Colin Powell's memoir is not titled "Present at the Destruction"?

"Yes, we can — if we, the Russians, the Chinese and the French all take a deep breath, understand our common interests and pursue them with a little more common sense and a little less bluster.

In addition to less bluster - we need less bulls*it - a sense of reality - a sense of the past that is true. The words of Ruby Tuesday by the Rolling Stones work for me here. We're going wrong because we aren't straight about our past - or even willing to talk about it. http://www.mrshowalter.net/a_md01000s/md1224_1230.htm

Freidman continues:

"We need a compromise. We need to say to the French, Russians and Chinese that we'll stand down for a few more weeks and give Saddam one last chance to comply with the U.N. disarmament demands — provided they agree now that if Saddam does not fully comply they will have the U.N. authorize the use of force.

"If war proves inevitable, it must be seen as the product of an international decision, not an American whim. The timing cannot be determined by the weather or the need to use troops just because they are there. You cannot launch a war this important now simply because it's going to be hot later. I would gladly trade a four-week delay today for four years of allied support after a war. I would much prefer a hot, legitimate, U.N.-approved war with the world on our side to a cool, less legitimate war that leaves us owning Iraq by ourselves.

To get that legitimacy - that compromise- there need to be agreements about facts . And mutual respect - combined with a sense that different people can have, not only different interests - but different valid points of view. If we had those agreements, I believe that we could resolve the situation in Iraq - and larger problems in the Middle East - without war. And other problems, too - notably those in Korea.

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