'Hit's Bobby-Ric, actually

Billy-Rick is my first cousin the beer-truck driver (-;

Compliments on a fair summary of the Left-Coast perspective on the situation. And I shall join you in promotion of the proposed allocation of systems; the one or two folk I have met from Winnemucca are at least as deserving of protection as any Beltway Bandit, though I know a few of those, too. Fine fellows (and ladies) all, including the one who works for the Federal agency that had the misfortune of getting the IRS grafted to it.

Sadder and (?possibly) wiser, the developers of the system do not claim the ability to block MAD-style attacks, although the Cubs-fan notion ("wait 'til next year!") remains in place. And certainly I think MAD is sufficient against any regime that values its people.

Sadly, it is clear that many regimes do not; that for such as Kim and his cohorts, the welfare of babies and children under their, ah, "protection" is very low on the scale of priorities... and for the limited threat of one or two or half-a-dozen #99 Noisemakers such might be able to strain to produce, an ABM system could be quite useful. And the bit about decoys, etc. is a red herring. If we really were trying to protect against the Russians, or the French, or even the Brazilians, it might make sense -- but they stay at bay from MAD. [BTW, whatever happened to Michael Merlin? (-;] A North Korea or an Iraq might very well be able to cobble together a couple of working missiles from sheer talent and stolen bits and pieces; the equivalent of you or me building a car in the garage, on a total budget of $200 -- doable, but niceties like a stereo system might have to wait for the next round.

Nor do I find the "all or nothing" complaint either convincing or sensible. Yes, any defense we can build will be as holey as St. Peter's. But we do have defenses against, e.g., truck bombs and tramp freighters; the Customs Service and the Coast Guard, whatever trivial fraction of their effort is left after the War on Drugs. Those defenses are holey as well; why is another partial defense such a terrible matter?

For me it comes to a moral issue, at the end. I have no complaint whatever against North Korean civilians, who are already half-starving; and no desire whatever to blow them away in order to "deter" or punish a regime that gives less of a damn about them than most anybody. If (and I agree it's a chance) we can build something that can neutralize the threat without holding the sword of Damocles over people who never did me any harm and haven't the means if they wanted to, I'm for it. If Kim, Saddam, and Robert M. don't give a damn about their population except for wanting it smaller to cut down on the amount that has to be wasted feeding them, what good is MAD anyway?

And as for the defense contractors -- I have my own beef with Corporate America [and World, LLC], but I really, truly can't see the harm in providing a few jobs to engineers and techs. One rathole is much like another, and as long as the prevailing attitude is that somebody else knows better than me what ought to be done with my "surplus value", I'd not mind having *some* input into the process.

Yours is likely the more realistic view, given that the idea has new 'legs', and the political overtones would ever swamp such niceties as ~ "how well.. might the partial coverage.. actually funtion in practice?"

My experience has been with massively complex machines (particle accelerators) and that colors my attitude towards all other er MCMs extant: every Single Part had to perform correctly (or within limits) for a handful.. or 5 x 10E11 particles to emerge on a target. (And no one was cutting powerlines or spraying gasoline into the vac. system - though it did sometimes appear that gremlins are everywhere, perhaps the real meaning of Dark matter).

But on the scale of - it'll likely happen in some form - I do see your point; and as dumbth escalates, spreads from bizness into 'Faith-Based no-strings Giving' .. ie as we increasingly demolish any universal chances for an adequate eduction:

I'll agree with your conclusion. Probably the jobs for a few good engineers - just may keep them from having to choose next: learning Power Point, TLA-creation and, going into bizness :[ just to eat. And I concur that MAD holds no terror for those who are sociopaths AND leaders; ditto for all those who Know What God Wants them to do (the ultimate celestial buckpassing, prior to committing new scales of atrocities In Her Name\ufffd)

OK, let's fund it. Yours is the better argument.

-though-

There's another matter re 'time'. ~ this sequence (?):

Given the events at the umm Conference on Racism, the escalation of Nazi-era singling-out of 'Zionism' [oh! That One again] this, amidst the ingrained variations of 'racism' within *every attending country* yada yada,

Given the increasing drum-beat over Israel's attempts to prevent being 100% erased (the stated and unaltered aims of the entire surrounding Arab contingent - the same group as will do nothing to accommodate their Palestinian brethren, over lo these many years),

Given the original Ministry of Propaganda's history (~'33-'45) and its success and - the current laissez-faire attitude of the US, Euro, UN ie 'world', its steadfast willingness to trade Anything (forget 'principle') to get Arab oil without having first to occupy their lands:

Given above - is there time to develop such defenses before need? Dunno about you, but what I see today is:

A) Formal confirmation that, as a species we are incapable of learning from history - either re the lethal effects of ingrained superstitions vs any idea of 'peace', or about the need for an effective world governing body (given our visible immaturity as a 'sentient' species).

B) I see us approaching the eve of Kristallnacht II, as the world turns its customary deaf ear to the mounting drum-beat, fears to lo$e that easy access to Arab oil - and vacillates. Add-in the estrangement of Russia et al, via Murican lost opportunities in past decade, increasing NATO threats to Putin's group... [and all those nukes on 2-min hair trigger]

Why *not* G\ufffdtterdamerung next???

(Maybe both the Christian Fundamentalists AND their equal-opposite Ayatollah-besotted ones - can get-off on watching GodsWill a smitin' all them heathen unBelievers (not Saved.. like I Am)).

Cheers,

Ashton
(now.. if'n I took this daily play as bein much more than an illusion, a wakin' dream - I'd be Fuckin Scared! right about now..) So.. I'll put on some Chopin, 'stead o' gloom-besotted Dickie Wagner (though the Liebestodt... really does capture the affair, doesn't it? ;-)

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