Missile Defense and Theodore Postol

January 3, 2003 6:44 AM

It's about Time this guy was recognized with accolades as the premiere whistleblower in the US. Just think of all the tax money that could be saved if everyone learned what Postol already knows!

Is NMD more theology than science? It would appear so.
posted by nofundy (9 comments total)

NoFundy - No, not theology: I bet they'll get NMD to work...errrr....eventually. A generous word, this "eventually" - A decade? Two? Three? Five? (At a cost of) - $10 Billion more? $100 billion? $1 trillion?

Call it the "American pyramid". Additionally, it functions pretty efficiently as an engine for the upward distribution of wealth in the US - the benefits (profits) from military spending tend to accrue disproportionately to the wealthiest Americans (especially to the top 1/2 of one percent). So it is certainly 'producing' something (inequality).

And, meanwhile, the rest of the world (North Korea, for example) is scrambling to acquire new weapons (of "mass destruction" and also conventional) in a desperate race to keep ahead of the feared (and stated goal) of the American military to eventually dominate the globe through total air supremacy and an ability to blast any and all missiles out of the air.

So NMD 'produces' one more thing besides inequality - proliferation.
posted by troutfishing at 7:02 AM on January 3, 2003

Who, the boss whistleblower Joel Mobray?

The Soviet Times rears its head yet again, and the snores roll in.
posted by hama7 at 7:16 AM on January 3, 2003

When Gen. Eisenhower was leaving office, he warned of the Industrial/military complex. Some years later, some shrewd observers noted that it had become the Industrial/Military/Academic Complex. MIT gets huge amounts of money from the Feds--as do most prestigious universities--and money has a way of buying corrupt practises in order to keep the money flowing to what once were places that had begun with honorable intentions.
posted by Postroad at 8:16 AM on January 3, 2003

The Soviet Times rears its head yet again, and the snores roll in.

I'm sure everyone appreciates your positive contributions to the discussion hama7. Hope the sand comes out of the orifices in your head easily.
posted by nofundy at 8:36 AM on January 3, 2003

Hama7 - Joel Mowbray certainly seems like a hero-whistleblower to me. But what is "The Soviet Times"? A nickname for a crocodile at a city zoo?

Have you ever studied Soviet Propaganda of the 1920's and 1930's?

Why not stop replaying this "Cold War in your head" and address the actual topic in question? ...."Ah yes...the 'Wall Street Journal'. Little do they know - the fools!...we smuggled Dr. Goebbels in after the war and he's been running it ever since. He's over 100, you know. We keep him going with Pineal Gland extracts from Brazilian orphan children bought on the black market...and, of course, lots of Viagra"
posted by troutfishing at 8:43 AM on January 3, 2003

Theology?? Most certainly!

Faith being the belief in things not seen . . .
. . . I support faith-based missle defense and would love to see the money redirected to social programs that federal and state governments have foisted off onto the churches.

A thousand pints of Light!!
posted by ahimsakid at 10:13 AM on January 3, 2003

Ahhh!!! Finally, someone who sees the obscure reference! How very clever of you ahimsakid! Great humor too.

Begin Vulcan mind meld......
posted by nofundy at 11:39 AM on January 3, 2003

Mowbray and Postol are both hero-whistleblowers, and both should be listened to.

"Even Dr. Postol's critics, who call him pushy and arrogant, tend to admire his laserlike precision. A Navy science adviser in the Reagan administration, he came to M.I.T. in 1989 as an expert on advanced weapons."

Darn those Reagan administration Soviets!
posted by homunculus at 1:57 PM on January 3, 2003

troutfishing: "Ah yes...the 'Wall Street Journal'. Little do they know - the fools!...we smuggled Dr. Goebbels in after the war and he's been running it ever since. He's over 100, you know. We keep him going with Pineal Gland extracts from Brazilian orphan children bought on the black market...and, of course, lots of Viagra"

Dammit, I've heard that before, but I can't recall where... though oddly the only google result I'm turning up is this very thread. Please enlighten!
posted by hincandenza at 9:58 PM on January 5, 2003