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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 - 02:25pm Mar 16, 2003 EST (# 10070 of 17697)
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.

At the levels I can judge - for the Azores meeting - President Bush and Prime Minister Blair and Prime Minister Aznar may have done as well as they could possibly have done- under circumstances where they surely know more than I can.

I thought President Bush's statements about the UN were concise, clear, and entirely reasonable from the US point of view - and consistent with my own.

A solid UN that works is needed. Bush said so. If we don't have it - we have to build it - but if we don't have it - action is sometimes still necessary.

The phrase that the UN must mean what it says expresses an important ideal.

I thought that Prime Minister Blair stated the case for the coalition very well - and took a position of leadership at the conference that I found clear and admirable - setting out decisions where I can judge something - but not everything.

I thought Prime Minister Aznar spoke well. A time does come when there have to be decisions. And while making them - it is still important to reach out - and maintain lines of communication - and common ground.

Negotiations are ahead - and I think they are probably real - and hope they are real.

If war happens - it will be handled with military competence - and with more care about civilian casualties than any prior conflict - ugly as war inescapably is.

Psychological warfare is being handled as competently as it ever has been handled in history, so far as I can tell, and I'm glad. I hope casualties on every side are absolutely minimal, and that the coalition wins - and acts later - in ways fully consistent with Prime Minister Blair's expressed principles.

So much is happening in public that this will not be - cannot be - a crude war of exploitation. Some of almarst's fears may prove justified - but I don't think his worst ones will.

Sometimes, once the point of decision has really arrived - people stop bluffing and jiving and settle for things in their interest - and mutual interest. Eventually decisions do have to be made. Fights are a primordial way decisions get made. There are better ways, most of the time.

lchic - 03:31pm Mar 16, 2003 EST (# 10071 of 17697)
ultimately TRUTH outs : TRUTH has to be morally forcing : build on TRUTH it's a strong foundation

Kennedy attacks Azores summit (UK Liberal)

"" Mr Kennedy said there was no legal basis for military action against Iraq, and warned that conflict risked a humanitarian crisis of "huge proportions".

Of the Azores summit, he said: "I believe that it's too early to give up the hope of a peaceful outcome. But the signs are that President Bush and Tony Blair have decided to abandon that hope."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/2854457.stm

lchic - 03:35pm Mar 16, 2003 EST (# 10072 of 17697)
ultimately TRUTH outs : TRUTH has to be morally forcing : build on TRUTH it's a strong foundation

Do any of the NEO CON-men around GWB fit this :

"" An obscure Jewish sect in New York has been gripped in awe by what it believes to be a mystical visitation by a 20lb carp that was heard shouting in Hebrew, in what many Jews worldwide are hailing as a modern miracle. Many of the 7,000-member Skver sect of Hasidim in New Square, 30 miles north of Manhattan, believe God has revealed himself in fish form. http://www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,915125,00.html

lchic - 03:47pm Mar 16, 2003 EST (# 10073 of 17697)
ultimately TRUTH outs : TRUTH has to be morally forcing : build on TRUTH it's a strong foundation

UK "" many Muslims were unconvinced by claims that a war would be fought for the humanitarian aim of freeing Iraqi people from a tyrannical regime.

"Muslims see three motives for war," said Mr Bunglawala. "Many believe this is the start of changing the map of the Middle East, a second Sykes-Picot agreement http://www.mideastweb.org/mesykespicot.htm which will only benefit America.

"People believe that the US wants to control oil and consolidate the position of Israel as the regional superpower.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2847115.stm

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