Over the past few days we have had an ongoing debate
on national missile defence. This debate had two dimensions,
the technical [can it be done] and the political [should it be
done]. I learned today that the technical side of this debate
might soon have a lot of new information released, some
time in the next 3 to 8 weeks. We are among friends here;
I do not want to encourage anyone to post anything that
might make them feel silly. I therefore propose we focus our
attention on the political side of the debate until we see what
info the censors will allow to be released. spike
Heres something that came out on the Post today:
BOEING PLANS MISSILE DEFENSE AD CAMPAIGN:
With the planned multibillion-dollar national missile-defense
system under attack from critics who say the technology will
not work, Boeing Co. is about to break an industry silence
with an advertising and "education" campaign aimed at both
the public and insiders who influence Congress. "We're going
to be running some ads very soon, and we've had some discussions
with the customer [the Pentagon] on how we can go out and try
to educate a lot of folks about national missile defense. We're
proud of the program that we have," James Albaugh, president
of Boeing's Space and Communications Group, said in an interview
yesterday. The pending campaign marks a departure not only
for Boeing but also for the defense industry as a whole, which
customarily leads the way in promoting and marketing major
weapons systems. Although ballistic-missile defense will be worth
about $4.7 billion in the next year alone, military contractors have
done virtually no advertising and little direct lobbying on the issue
in recent years, in part because congressional support seemed
solid. Companies such as Lockheed Martin Corp., which is building
an anti-missile system to protect Army troops, as well as subcontractors
Raytheon Co. and TRW Inc., also were leery about taking a high
profile on such a sensitive issue. (Washington Post)
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