jj@rabbit.UUCP (08/17/84)
(Paku Paku Paku <tick tick> BOOM) < > < > the motivation of the proponents is suspect. < > .. Gary Perlman < < The motivation of the proponents is not suspect at all. It < is quite obvious. GREED! (translation - $$) < < The whole Star Wars Defence plan is a ploy by a minority < of individuals to make VAST amounts of money off of the fears < and naivete of the majority. < The sad part is that the American public will fall for it. < ... and pay for it. Well, I can see Gary Perlman's concerns. I can't see the concerns of the author in the < quote above at all. Obviously, the people who think they CAN build something are the ones who will want to build it. Not so obvious is the motivation of those who want to convince everyone else that it can't be built. I think that deliberately disqualifying most or all experts because they've studied a subject is the heights of self-inflicted blindness. I personally am appalled at the lack of any DEFENSIVE weapons, or any RESEARCH for defensive weapons. Historically, there have been many weapons (sword/armor, gunpowder, warships, airplanes, missles?) that have been touted as invincible. For each of these weapons these has been discovered, built, and implimented defensive system that has "required" the discovery of a newer, more "invincible" system. I don't see that missles are any different. When you get right down to it, they move very quickly, they are hard to aim, they are easy to break, and they can't take a lot of defensive actions BECAUSE they move so fast. The test of the little rocket with aluminium rods in the Pacific a few weeks ago was most heartening to me, because it represents a cheap (in relative terms) and effective way of dealing with a weapon that costs many times as much. That device was NOT part of the "star wars" system, true, but it was space technology, and of a relatively simple type, indeed one that I suspect would have been tried a LOT sooner except for the blindness caused by the MAD philosophy. "If you can't hit 'em, you can't hurt 'em!" -- EVEN TEDDY BEARS LIKE COOKIES! "...On a pocket full of mumbles, such are promises." (allegra,harpo,ulysses)!rabbit!jj