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-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [ufpj-activist] Missile Defense: Is it Working?
From: Global Network <globalnet@mindspring.com>
To: United for Peace and Justice <ufpj-activist@lists.mayfirst.org>
CC:
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Times New Roman"><em><strong>I delivered this speech on May 24 in Waterloo, Canada at an event called "Securing the Peaceful Use of Space for Future Generations"</strong></em></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0pt"><font size="5" face="Times New Roman"><strong>Missile Defense: Is it Working?</strong></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Times New Roman">By Bruce Gagnon</font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Times New Roman">One of the biggest questions in the space technology world today is will “missile defense” (MD) really work?<span style="">
</span>Recently we’ve seen articles making a case that it does not work and never will.<span style="">
</span>I would suggest that depending on where you are standing, a strong case could be made that MD is working quite well.<span style="">
</span>It’s all a matter of perception and definition.</font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Times New Roman">When looked at from the point of view of the Russians or Chinese one might consider that they view it very differently than some of the critics.<span style="">
</span>Critics see scripted Missile Defense Agency tests while Russia and China see a hyperactive deployment program, which is directly connected to a larger U.S./NATO military expansion ultimately leading to their encirclement.</font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Times New Roman">Critics might see the MD system today largely as a corporate boondoggle while the Russians and Chinese are looking toward 2020 and beyond when new generations of a well funded research
and development program (now committed to by NATO’s 28 members) has delivered faster, more accurate and longer range interceptor missiles.</font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Times New Roman">Critics in a sense can help demobilize opposition to the program. Some peace activists think it would be a waste of their valuable time and meager organizing resources to spend energy
working against a program that has been labeled by experts as unworkable and an exaggeration.<span style="">
</span>But viewed from a wider perspective, that includes U.S. and NATO military encirclement of Russia as well as the Obama administration’s “pivot” of military operations into the Asia-Pacific, one may see an entirely different picture.</font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Times New Roman"><em><strong>See the rest of the talk at:
<a href="http://www.space4peace.org/bmd/md_is_it_working.htm">http://www.space4peace.org/bmd/md_is_it_working.htm</a></strong></em></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Times New Roman"><em><strong>Find a report on the conference on my blog at:</strong></em>
<a href="http://space4peace.blogspot.com/2012/05/are-space-treaties-no-longer-necessary.html">
http://space4peace.blogspot.com/2012/05/are-space-treaties-no-longer-necessary.html</a></font></p>
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<div>Bruce K. Gagnon<br>
Coordinator<br>
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space<br>
PO Box 652<br>
Brunswick, ME 04011<br>
(207) 443-9502<br>
<a href="mailto:globalnet@mindspring.com">globalnet@mindspring.com</a><br>
<a href="http://www.space4peace.org">www.space4peace.org</a><br>
<a href="http://space4peace.blogspot.com/">http://space4peace.blogspot.com/</a> (blog)</div>
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Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth. ~Henry David Thoreau
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