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From: fred@mnetor.UUCP (Fred Williams)
Newsgroups: can.politics
Subject: Re: problems with Star Wars #2 (part 1: a side issue)
Message-ID: <1327@mnetor.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 16-Jul-85 13:17:03 EDT
Article-I.D.: mnetor.1327
Posted: Tue Jul 16 13:17:03 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 16-Jul-85 14:29:52 EDT
References: <1197@utcsri.UUCP> <5757@utzoo.UUCP> <2165@watcgl.UUCP>  <1630@dciem.UUCP>
Reply-To: fred@mnetor.UUCP (Fred Williams)
Organization: Computer X (CANADA) Ltd., Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Lines: 41
Summary: 

>
>>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.

	Yes it is troubling, but there are those of us opposing SDI
involvement who do have some idea of what is involved.
	I was a weapons analyst for several years and on some
projects I'd rather not talk about. This was with private arms
manufacturers as well as the Dept. of National Defence. I have also
worked for many years with state of the art computer systems. If I
do say so myself, I have a very good idea of the type of system
SDI needs, and the reliability we could expect in the type of
environment forseeable.
	I have two objections to Star Wars,
	1	These are not necessarily defensive only weapons.
	    A microwave laser could be aimed at many targets even
	    on the ground. The warning time for such an attack
	    would be zero.
	2	It simply won't work even in a defensive roll.
	    The proponents of SDI give it a 95% success rate
	    in their best projections. The remaining 5% of Soviet
	    missles that do get through are still eneough to wipe 
	    out North America, and cause a nuclear winter.

	Believe me, if somebody came up with a scheme that would
really protect us from nuclear attack, I'd re-consider. I would
probably recommend that it be distributed universally. However,
this is not likely to happen.
	Reality dictates that the only solution will be a social
or cultural one. We have to put nationalist goals aside and 
simply learn to live in harmony with our neighbours, and our
environment. I know this sounds idealistic, and a bit corny,
but I believe it will happen to some extent because if it doesn't
there will be nobody around to tell me I was wrong.

Cheers,		Fred Williamns