Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site ubc-vision.CDN Path: utzoo!utcsri!ubc-vision!mack From: mack@ubc-vision.CDN (Alan Mackworth) Newsgroups: can.politics Subject: Re: Canadian participation in Star Wars. Message-ID: <962@ubc-vision.CDN> Date: Fri, 7-Jun-85 14:24:58 EDT Article-I.D.: ubc-visi.962 Posted: Fri Jun 7 14:24:58 1985 Date-Received: Fri, 7-Jun-85 15:26:53 EDT References: <893@mnetor.UUCP> <5642@utzoo.UUCP> <896@mnetor.UUCP> <5669@utzoo.UUCP> <945@mnetor.UUCP> <5677@utzoo.UUCP> Reply-To: mack@ubc-vision.UUCP (Alan Mackworth) Organization: UBC Computational Vision Lab, Vancouver, B.C., Canada Lines: 43 Summary: From the Globe and Mail, June 7, 1985: "Robert McNamara has warned that President Ronald Reagan's proposed Star Wars missile defence system will sharply escalate the arms race because the Soviets will expend unlimited funds to invent the weapons to defeat it. Mr. McNamara, who served as defence secretary in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, said the President's original proposal in March 1983, seemed theoretically plausible because it called for substituting defensive for offensive nuclear weapons. Since that time it has become clear that building a 'leak-proof defence' is not possible, he said." When McNamara says that you'd better believe him. He's well-informed and not known (to put it non-libellously) for his peace-loving behaviour. What is interesting is his remark on the initial apparent plausibility of Star Wars. In the current issue of Harper's Magazine parts of a study commissioned by High Frontier (the military space lobby that dreamed up Star Wars) are reprinted. The study outlined their plans for the lobbying and media manipulation required to sell Star Wars in an era in which unlimited military extravagance was finally coming to public attention. The main recommmendation of the study was to recapture the peace symbols that the freeze movement had built in the public consciousness. Rompin' Ronnie's initial media barrage was very carefully crafted to achieve that effect. Although the Star Wars fantasy is finally being exposed for what it is (even by McNamara, NATO, et al), the distressing thing is that the endless public debate generated and the energy that has been diverted by it have in fact achieved the ends of those that proposed it, namely, to protect the insane levels of public expenditure on the armaments industry and to block any progress in arms control which stands in the way of further increases in the military budgets. As usual the peace movement has been out-manouevered. For a while we actually had the initiative but now we are once again reacting to the fantasies of the military lobby. The willingness to engage in rational debate on such irrational notions as increasing security through making our doomsday machine larger and laser-equipped legitimizes those fantasies. They should be exposed for what they are. Alan Mackworth |