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"the so-called "Star Wars" program under Reagan to which I'm referring was considered by many to be wasteful spending." And was considered by others to be the

"the so-called "Star Wars" program under Reagan to which I'm referring was considered by many to be wasteful spending." And was considered by others to be the final straw that broke the Soviet Union and put an end to a 70 year Cold War and eliminated one of the most evil empires in the history of the human race. "I don't think there is much in the constitution mandating space lasers." Article I, Section 8. Unless you're one of those people who attempt to argue that armies and navies are limited to 18th century technology.

DonHopkins 9y ago
>"and eliminated one of the most evil empires in the history of the human race" Yet ironically, so many of those very same people who once argued that are now enthusiastically supporting and carrying the water for Trump's total capitulation to Putin. Makes you wonder if they really mean what they say, or if they just lust for power and hold party over country. Hmm...
- Recurecur 9y ago
  What "total capitulation to Putin" would that be, exactly? Be very specific and cite believable sources!
  - Recurecur 9y ago
    No response, eh? How shocking...
yongjik 9y ago
From "The Demon-Haunted World" by Carl Sagan: > It is claimed by apologists for the Reagan administration that, whatever the exaggerations in capability, some of it intentional, SDI was responsible for the collapse of the Soviet Union. There is no serious evidence in support of this contention. Andrei Sakharov, Yevgeny Velikhov, Roald Sagdeev, and other scientists who advised President Mikhail Gorbachev made it clear that if the United States really went ahead with a Star Wars programme, the safest and cheapest Soviet response would be merely to augment its existing arsenal of nuclear weapons and delivery systems. In this way Star Wars could have increased, not decreased, the peril of thermonuclear war. At any rate, Soviet expenditures on space-based defences against American nuclear missiles were comparatively paltry, hardly of a magnitude to trigger a collapse of the Soviet economy. The fall of the USSR has much more to do with the failure of the command economy, growing awareness of the standard of living in the west, widespread disaffection from a moribund Communist ideology, and - although he did not intend such an outcome - Gorbachev's promotion of glasnost, or openness. Ten thousand American scientists and engineers publicly pledged they would not work on Star Wars or accept money from the SDI organization. This provides an example of widespread and courageous non-cooperation by scientists (at some conceivable personal cost) with a democratic government that had, temporarily at least, lost its way. * I know Sagan isn't exactly a historian, but I'll choose his assessment of space war technology over other people's.

DonHopkins 9y ago

>"and eliminated one of the most evil empires in the history of the human race" Yet ironically, so many of those very same people who once argued that are now enthusiastically supporting and carrying the water for Trump's total capitulation to Putin. Makes you wonder if they really mean what they say, or if they just lust for power and hold party over country. Hmm...

Recurecur 9y ago
What "total capitulation to Putin" would that be, exactly? Be very specific and cite believable sources!
- Recurecur 9y ago
  No response, eh? How shocking...

yongjik 9y ago

From "The Demon-Haunted World" by Carl Sagan: > It is claimed by apologists for the Reagan administration that, whatever the exaggerations in capability, some of it intentional, SDI was responsible for the collapse of the Soviet Union. There is no serious evidence in support of this contention. Andrei Sakharov, Yevgeny Velikhov, Roald Sagdeev, and other scientists who advised President Mikhail Gorbachev made it clear that if the United States really went ahead with a Star Wars programme, the safest and cheapest Soviet response would be merely to augment its existing arsenal of nuclear weapons and delivery systems. In this way Star Wars could have increased, not decreased, the peril of thermonuclear war. At any rate, Soviet expenditures on space-based defences against American nuclear missiles were comparatively paltry, hardly of a magnitude to trigger a collapse of the Soviet economy. The fall of the USSR has much more to do with the failure of the command economy, growing awareness of the standard of living in the west, widespread disaffection from a moribund Communist ideology, and - although he did not intend such an outcome - Gorbachev's promotion of glasnost, or openness. Ten thousand American scientists and engineers publicly pledged they would not work on Star Wars or accept money from the SDI organization. This provides an example of widespread and courageous non-cooperation by scientists (at some conceivable personal cost) with a democratic government that had, temporarily at least, lost its way. * I know Sagan isn't exactly a historian, but I'll choose his assessment of space war technology over other people's.