Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site mnetor.UUCP Path: utzoo!utcs!mnetor!fred 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