posted on August 27, 2001 05:27:11 AM new
This is maybe the looniest batch of governmental rationale that I've ever heard. It seems that those countries who have now been deemed to be the biggest threats to this country, able maybe to mount an attack with nuclear missiles, are unable to make missiles which fly without wobbling and wobbling missiles are evidently the most difficult to hit with the proposed missile defense system upon which we are supposed to place our faith and our fates forevermore.
So, even though the stupid system cannot hit a straight flying wave and smile missile that carries a beacon saying "here I am, over here" it doesn't matter because a wobbling missile couldn't be hit anyway, or something like that.
They've begun to clear thousands of acres of Alaska forest now as the beginning move in the construction of this ridiculous system that might work someday if the North Koreans and Chinese will cooperate by learning to make their missiles go where they would be expected to go without wobbling.
It's OK though, because while a wobbling missile fired at New York City might not hit Central Park it still could get New Jersey and that's reason enough to install a system that won't stop it.
Read these pentagon whackos! This thing is going to cost more billions of dollars than anything ever fousted off before, result in nothing except hordes of much fatter fatcat contractor corporations, and if ever some country out there gets serious about attacking this one the guy who plants a bomb in a suitcase on a bench in Central Park will get the biggest laugh of his life while he waits for the ticker to wind down and blast him into pulverized fanatic's nirvanha.
posted on August 27, 2001 06:37:49 AM new
So, the faith guided missile defense system is failing when tested on stabilized missiles and the system will not work at all on wobbling missiles sent by those countries which are considered to be the biggest threats to this country.
Now, I suppose there will be an effort to develop wobbling missiles to counteract detection by our new missile defense system that is designed to counter stabilized missiles.
posted on August 27, 2001 08:52:10 AM new
You don't even have to guide them. Just make sure they hit the continent somewhere and fuse them to ground burst. The lethal plume of radioactive crap wil be a hunderd miles wide and five hundred miles long. Unless they all fall on Nevada we are in for a lot of damage.
posted on August 27, 2001 09:29:32 AM newSaabsister
Those wobblies will destroy the universe.
You may as well hold an umbrella over your head!
Gravid
You mention "them". I don't believe that we are prepared for more than one...if we are very lucky.
"This is a major flaw. A missile-defense system that can find and destroy only one target is no defense at all."
posted on August 27, 2001 10:39:40 AM new
Am I reading this correctly? We're teaching other countries how to shoot unwobbly missles so we have more accuracy when shooting them down?
Helen, I have to say I love the "faith guided" part!
posted on August 27, 2001 10:43:46 AM newNow, I suppose there will be an effort to develop wobbling missiles to counteract detection by our new missile defense system that is designed to counter stabilized missiles
No, I think the next step is to sell these countries the technology to shoot missles straight. It's a win/win situation for the pentagon.
arttsupplies (webmaster)
posted on August 27, 2001 11:01:46 AM new artsupplies
LoL
What a fantastic merchandising scheme for the Pentagon!
Kraftdinner
The "faith guided" part was based on one of the Nancy Letters...
that Krs posted last week. It's a sort of parody of the Bush administration's shenanigans.
posted on August 27, 2001 11:18:58 AM new
That's right Helen.....I knew I saw that somewhere. I hope krs keeps posting Nancy's comments. She's pretty quick!
posted on August 27, 2001 11:59:25 AM new"Starting in 1999, when the prototype interceptor began zooming into space on flight tests, none of the targets slated for destruction included tumbling warheads. Critics charge that the Pentagon found the problem too formidable and swept it under the rug."
"But in an interview, Mr. Cavender, formerly the Army's program manager for National Missile Defense and now retired, said the effort to address the problem had been dropped because there was not enough money for realistic testing. Each flight costs about $100 million."
Lesse ... 100 million divided by 50,000 ... carry the one ... mumble, mumble, ... aha! Yes. For the cost of this bogus missle test alone we could have had 2,000 average homes in California convert to Solar Power and Water Heating! That would have been paid entirely for by the government too! If we used it as a matching-funds program, it would have converted 4,000 homes to Solar.
The point is, is that $100 million dollars in the hands of the Pentagon is nothing more than pennies lying around in your pocket! It could be better used to help Americans become Energy Independant or any other numbeer of useful things -- including giving us back our money to spend or invest as we please!
The problem is Congress. The millitary asks for $1 Billion for their budget, the President increses that to $1.3 Billion to fund their own pet projects. Then Congress adds their pork projects to it and raises it to $1.7 Billion. The millitary keeps saying, "No!" to overspending for the millitary as they are trying to do right for this country and act responsibly, but the damned politicians won't let them!
The bottom line is that either you have the Democrats in charge and those Billions of dollars goes to helping people out OR you put the Republicans in charge and they'll funnel those billions of dollars to their rich buddies. Anyone who thinks that politicians are there to SAVE you money is living entirely in a fantasy land! Don't beleive me? Go look at the records for yourself -- "The Proof is in the Pudding" as the saying used to go.
Let's scrap this CORPORATE HANDOUT idea under the guise of the bogus Missle Defence Program and instead spend it on ways to make all Americans Energy Independant --- both in vehicles and in homes and businesses!
posted on August 27, 2001 12:13:40 PM new
I'm uncertain about the answer to the initial topic question but the article strikes such a sense of absurdity -- in the observations and rationale of the spokespersons who are quoted and in the general use of language -- that any critical reader would have to question their sanity.
Though neither the thoughts of nuclear annihilation nor the prospects of further economic collapse through raiding a now- almost-bankrupt treasury to fund an ill-conceived boondoggle is humorous, as I read the language I couldn't help but smile at much of the diction and phrasing. Phrases like "new members of the missle club" and "spinning like footballs" conjure images of the discussion of sporting events by some good old boy members of a private club. The description of the "wobblers" as "primitive" missles launched by "inexperienced attackers," makes me wonder how we've ever managed to keep those pesky Neanderthals at bay, lo these many years. But we are assured that after sufficiently "confronting the tumbling issue" all will be well. Absolutely wonderful for its multiple ironies is Cavender's statement, "'It's not a show-stopper,' he insisted."
It seems to me the more immediate dangers to us result from "spinning" the truth about realistic economic forecasts in order to justify tax cuts in a "wobbling" economy. The target being, of course, to hit the social security surpluses with enough "experienced attacks" that the Neanderthals will never know what happened.
posted on August 27, 2001 12:27:48 PM new
It makes you wonder if they're really going to build anything other than a giant swindle of the taxpayer. They all act as though it's a hypothetical football game knowing that it will never be played.
This whole boondoggle of 'preparedness' is a ripoff as far as I can see; there has never been, nor is there ever likely to be an attack on this country of any more significance than a terrorist bombing of a building or the downing of an occasional airplane. Yet still untold billions of dollars must be put somewhere under the pretense of the necessity of keeping unknown foriegn invaders from our figurative shores.
To make matters worse they are announcing right now that there will be a tapping of the social security resources very soon of some nine billion dollars supposedly to keep the government operating. Why isn't the first thing they stop the development of these useless weapon technologies, which cessation would save many tens of times that much? Oh, it's very simple. We NEED those missile defenses that haven't a hope of working much more than retired people need their own accumulated money to live.
posted on August 27, 2001 12:41:23 PM new
If we got the steight scoop on this missile test, it's a boondoggle to try to build it with out further research.
But one thing to keep in mind, the Pentagon doesn't always tell the general public the truth, and nothing but the truth. Nor should they. Somethings are better kept secret, and if pushed, those in the know should lie. It's called National Security.
No doubt, the military has a history of boondoggles. Things that went over budget, things that the military paid 50 X retail for, and other wasteful spending. And it shouldn't happen...
But let's be careful what we wish for. It may be your son or grandson that is a infantry sergeant in the next war. Reguardless of if you agree with the cause or purpose of the war, our young people that serve in the military deserve nothing but the best, most up to date equipment money can buy.
posted on August 28, 2001 03:14:31 AM new"It may be your son or grandson that is a infantry sergeant in the next war.Reguardless of if you agree with the cause or purpose of the war, our young people that serve in the military deserve nothing but the best, most up to date equipment money can buy".
What has that got to do with this? Those sons need leaders they can trust who will support them and protect their lives. They do not need a pentagon filled with brown nosers so afraid for their jobs that they would place people at risk on the whim of some half witted jerk trying to make a mark for himself.
It's a sad testimony to the political nature of the military hierarchy in this country that bozo gets any support for crap like this from anyone in the pentagon.
posted on August 28, 2001 05:08:16 AM newThey do not need a pentagon filled with brown nosers so afraid for their jobs
How true. The military is full of people "afraid to rock the boat", and it's sad. Short of National Security issues, no one (even in the military) should have to be afraid of speaking the truth.
I guess my point is, that even though this particular program appears to be a boondoggle, let's not get carried away, and try to slash the military budget to much.
posted on August 28, 2001 12:48:35 PM new
If you look over the last five or six years at the budget proposals from the millitary, they are right in line. The problem has been the Republican politicians who add many extra BILLIONS OF TAXPAYER DOLLARS per year in pet pork projects -- usually with the millitary protesting and saying that they just don't need the stuff! One of the worst offenders of this type of fiscal irresponsibility is Sen. Trench-mouth Lott from Miss., who wins the Most-Pork Award year after year. If we just let the millitary decide on their own budget and take their advice about closing down unneeded millitary bases, Dubya wouldn't be in this fix about Social Security.
