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Politics : Foreign Policy Discussion Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Elmer Flugum who wrote (2314)	1/16/2003 5:55:45 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 15987

Everything in its own time. If India succeeded sooner, best wishes to them. Actually, I don't agree with "fate-based" democratic movements. It requires courage, suffering, persecution, and an absolute conviction of being right (and being able to persuade your rivals as well, of just how right you are.. :0) No one in Palestine has been willing, or survived Arafat's wrath, to stand up for compromising with Israel, despite the obvious reality that, so long as Israel exists, a Palestinian state cannot be formed without such compromise and cooperation. And even now, people such as yourself advocate Israel just "disbanding" its government and military and "trusting" their fates to the Arabs and Palestinians.. Just ridiculous... Kim Jong Il is our latest boogeyman. Someone to fill in while the inspections are going on? That's ALSO ridiculous Len.. Trouble with Kim Jong Il is the LAST thing the Bush administration wants at the moment as it continues to make its case to deal with Saddam. But it displays just what happens when these totalitarian dinosaurs get ahold of nukes and start believing they can blackmail the wealthier nations into subsidizing their corruption and cruelty. Nothing less than outright armed robbery... (despite our having bigger weapons which we refuse to unholster). I guess you find some sense of satisfaction that some 2 million N. Koreans have died of starvation due to this unwillingness to confront N. Korea's government and demand they moderate their policies (and certainly their rhetoric). The United States is the only country that has used nuclear weaponry against anyone, so are you saying that America is evil? And I would use it were the circumstances the same with any other country, if it meant saving a million American soldiers from becoming casualities. And certainly if it were aimed at a state which had launched a sneak attack at us, and who's people were obedient (and thus complicit) in their country's aggression. Nuclear weapons are just that.. weapons.. Big Weapons with massive explosive power... They can be used to achieved "good" ends, or evil ones.. They can be used against non-democratic despots in defense of democracy, or they can be used by these despots in order to subjugate and tyrannize others. People like you would believe we were "terrorizing" the Japanese people and should never have used them.. People like me would rather use them than have to explain to the families of those American soldiers who didn't have to die. Hawk

To: Elmer Flugum who wrote (2314)	1/16/2003 5:57:15 PM
From: lorne	Respond to of 15987

Space Shuttle Launches with First Israeli Astronaut Thu January 16, 2003 11:17 AM ET By Broward Liston CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Israel's first astronaut, hailed as the John Glenn of his nation, rode the space shuttle Columbia into Earth orbit on Thursday along with six U.S. astronauts on a marathon 16-day science mission. Security forces at the Kennedy Space Center rivaled those of a small nation, with ships, fighter jets, missile launchers and commando squads guarding a wide perimeter around the seaside launch pad. Columbia blasted off at 10:39 a.m. EST. For this mission, the security spilled over into nearby Cocoa Beach, Fla., where police were at most street corners and car searches became routine. A colonel and fighter pilot in the Israeli air force, Ilan Ramon's flight had added significance for Israelis because he is the son of a holocaust survivor -- his mother, Tonya Wolferman, was at Auschwitz. "For that generation, this brings the story full circle. What John Glenn did for Americans, Col. Ramon is doing for Israelis, and also for all Holocaust survivors and their descendants," said Daniel Ayalon, Israel's ambassador to the United States, who was on hand for the launch. Glenn was the first American to orbit the Earth, in 1962, a year after Alan Shepherd Jr. became the first U.S. astronaut. At the height of the Cold War, Glenn's flight assured Americans they could match Soviet accomplishments in the new arena of space. Ramon's primary task is a study of atmospheric aerosols, or dust storms, and the impact on global climate. He will also eat the first Kosher food in space -- NASA ordered it from an Illinois company that packages it for campers and travelers -- and say prayers on the Jewish Sabbath. Ramon said he is not religious but understands the symbolic importance of the traditions. Some 300 Israelis, most of them tourists, were at Cape Canaveral for the launch. Every Israeli school child will spend 25 hours of classroom time studying Ramon's flight and space science. "For the younger generation, this stands for what we really want to promote, which is excellence, which is involvement and which is contributing and helping all human kind," Ayalon said. Columbia's mission is jam packed with round-the-clock science. The crew will work in two 12-hour shifts in a laboratory module nestled in the shuttle's cavernous cargo bay conducting 59 separate scientific investigations. Pure science missions have become rare since construction began on the International Space Station in 1998. Accompanying the astronauts will be an assortment of lab rats, fish, insects and human tissue. The astronauts themselves will become test subjects for the effects of weightlessness on the human system. Most of the dozens of experiments have flown before, and NASA designed the flight so that space scientists could continue their ongoing studies until the space station is able to support them. Shuttle commander Rick Husband, a U.S. Air Force colonel, and his pilot, Willie McCool, a Navy commander, lead Columbia's crew. The payload commander, responsible for the science hardware, is Air Force Lt. Col. Michael Anderson. Ramon; Navy Capt. David Brown, a physician; Kalpana Chawla, an India-born aerospace engineer; and Navy Cmdr. Laurel Clark, also a physician, round out the crew. The launch date had been postponed since July 2001 by a variety of technical and scheduling problems. Columbia is scheduled to land at the Kennedy Space Center on Feb. 1. Israel is the 30th nation to put a citizen in orbit, flying aboard either U.S. or Russian spacecraft, and in every case the event has become the focus of national pride. reuters.com