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Path: utzoo!linus!security!genrad!grkermit!masscomp!clyde!ihnp4!ihuxl!pvp
From: pvp@ihuxl.UUCP (Philip Polli)
Newsgroups: net.politics,btl.general
Subject: Re: Re: BTL Takes the Lead
Message-ID: <745@ihuxl.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 15-Nov-83 17:57:12 EST
Article-I.D.: ihuxl.745
Posted: Tue Nov 15 17:57:12 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 17-Nov-83 00:55:58 EST
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, Il
Lines: 44

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I don't recall anybody advocating unilateral disarmament by the
West. Perhaps I'm not reading the right (pun intended) magazines.

I do recall people advocating that the West should stop escalating
the nuclear arms race. After all, it was the U.S. which first
developed and built the:

	Hydrogen Bomb,
	Submarine Launched Ballistic Missiles,
	ABM (Anti ballistic missile defense, now mothballed),
	MIRV (Multiple warhead missiles),
	Cruise Missiles,
	
	and coming soon to a country near you,
	MX missiles,
	Midgetman,
	and the Deathstar (space based laser defenses).
	
If I remember right, we built all of these things to promote peace
and harmony and to use as bargaining chips to get the Russians to
the negotiating table. Unfortunately, all that seems to have resulted
is that the Russians built the same damn things and aimed them at us.

The opinion expressed in the article from pyuxa!wetcw appears to be
that we must keep some sort of nuclear advantage over the Russians
in order to get them to negotiate arms reduction and stop stirring
up trouble in the world. This strategy has been followed by us for
the last thirty years, and does not seem to have accomplished anything.

The opinion of a large number of other people is that if we keep
escalating the arms race, we are going to blow ourselves up someday.
It is a historical fact that whenever a new weapon is developed,
no matter how terrible the consequences of its use are thought to be,
(e.g. the crossbow, TNT, etc. ), it ends up being used in a war.
Fortunately, the human race managed to survive its previous attempts
at suicide. We will probably not survive the next.

I, for one, am glad to see BTL scientists taking the lead in
an attempt to halt the arms race.

		Phil Polli
		ihuxl!pvp