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From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: can.politics
Subject: Re: problems with Star Wars #2 (part 1: a side issue)
Message-ID: <5782@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 11-Jul-85 16:09:50 EDT
Article-I.D.: utzoo.5782
Posted: Thu Jul 11 16:09:50 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 11-Jul-85 16:09:50 EDT
References: <1197@utcsri.UUCP> <5757@utzoo.UUCP>, <2165@watcgl.UUCP>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 36

>> (Something that bothers me is the "peace movement"'s serious ignorance of
>> the nature of the systems they criticize.)  ...
>
> Sigh...., somehow it's always the peace movement thats portrayed as
> ignorant; don't the seriously ignorant among those who promote a nuclear
> "defense" bother you. 

Ignorance anywhere bothers me.  But some of the "peace movement" people
really do not appear to have the faintest idea how these systems work;
their opposition seems to arise from either ideological considerations
or herd instinct, rather than the issues themselves.  I emphasize (as I
should have before) that not all "peace movement" people are like this.
The percentage is high enough to be troubling, though.

>  It is my impression that the principal feature of launch on warning is
>  that the side being attacked does not wait for actual detonation or
>  impact of incoming missiles before ordering retaliation.  This does
>  reduce the amount of time available for a decision and if weapons
>  delivery systems continue to decrease delivery time (or even appear
>  to effectively do so by various forms of stealth) it will necessitate
>  either 1. having an impregnable retaliatory system so it is not 
>  necessary to launch before impact, or 2. employ automatic launch
>  systems since there will not be time for human decision making.

You are correct about the principal feature of launch on warning, and
about its effect on decision times.  But a human being can make a
go/no-go decision in seconds.  Launch-on-warning *would* mean serious
changes in policy, since current policy is "presidential order only",
and there is a strong possibility that time would be too short for this.
But people who talk about having to automate the decision are jumping to
conclusions, or have been misled by DoD's manic enthusiasm for automating
everything in sight.  There does not seem to be any logical necessity
for it.
-- 
				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry