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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Scumbria who wrote (129917)	12/20/2000 12:52:45 PM
From: Joe NYC	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1570543

Scumbria, If Iran launched a nuclear missile at Israel, what do you think the response would be from the US? A little thought is required here. Before or after the US designed missile shield was put in place? If after, I think the response would be a prayer that the system works and people operate it correctly. If the missile was launched before a missile shield was put in place, like today, the only think the US could do is to hope that the casualties are low. Hopefully, a retaliation would destroy or set back the Iranian nuclear capabilities. But the retaliation is irrelevant to the people who launched the missiles in the first place. I think they share the mentality with the suicide bombers. Mostly innocent people would end up getting hurt in any US retaliation. Your earlier argument, if I understand it correctly is that there is no point in trying to defend against attack A with countermeasure A1, since the existence of countermeasure A1 will cause the attacker to switch to attack B. I disagree. Having response A1 makes weapon A useless, and all the attacker can do is to use weapon B. That is until we develop a defense B1. Joe

To: Scumbria who wrote (129917)	12/20/2000 2:30:29 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1570543

If Iran launched a nuclear missile at Israel, what do you think the response would be from the US? A little thought is required here. Scumbria, I know, I know....buy more stock in Lockheed and other missle makers. ted

To: Scumbria who wrote (129917)	12/20/2000 4:55:15 PM
From: pgerassi	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1570543

Dear Scumbria: What would you do if North Korea launched 1 ICBM with a warhead at Boulder, CO? The fact that we could blast them into the stone age (which is not very far for the typical North Korean anyway), would not mitigate the fact that you and your family are still very dead. What would you do if the Russians intent on dismantling one of their ICBMs launched it by accident with a target of Boulder, CO? Even if the warheads do not explode, chances are that it will still spread plutonium all over Boulder and you and your family still grows sick and die. What do you do if, some creep makes a virus that lasts only 24 hours no matter how many hosts are infected and is fatal within an hour, and uses that as the payload, instead of a nuke? The current deterrent assumes that the other side is rational and not prone to mistakes. It is totally ineffective if the other side is insane or mistake ridden. In fact, if such a mistake were to occur with one of our allies, like the Chinese Embassy Bombing, a simple human error, would you think we would even retaliate? Demand reparations probably, an apology definitely, but, not a nuclear strike at one of their cities. There is much to be said of an option that might be between doing nothing and all out nuclear retaliation. There might also be spin-offs that could be beneficial like shooting down dropping satellites over safe areas instead of impacts to heavily populated areas. Another spin-off might be an asteroid defense system (Global disasters are such a drag!). A third, would be vastly improved radar systems for air traffic control. There is much to be said for such a system, if it is reliable and effective. Pete