| Missile defence deserves honest debate By Ottawa Raging Grannie Jo Wood I'm not very good at getting letters into the newspaper. For example, I sent in 9 letters during the missile defence debate, 7 to the Globe and Mail and 2 to the Ottawa Citizen. Only one to the Citizen got accepted. Here is my accepted Citizen letter --------------------------------------------- Re: Missile defence deserves honest debate, Feb. 26, 2004 A17 David Pratt claims that the U.S. ballistic missile defence system "now being put in place by the United States" includes no space-based weapons whatsoever. He has a point. The first system, being rushed to activate in July, will have no space-based weapons. However, such weapons are under development and funded in the U.S. missile defense system budget. This information is available on the U.S. Department of Defense website where the intent to move quickly on space-based weapons is clear. For example, a space-based laser (SBL) is under development to intercept and destroy ballistic missiles by focusing a high-power laser beam on the target. Additionally, a "space-based kinetic energy kill vehicle" is expected to undergo experimental tests in 2006. Thus, Mr. Pratt may be technically honest in stating that the U.S. missile defence system does not NOW include space weapons, but what kind of "open, honest, and reasoned debate" can we have if he fails to acknowledge that these weapons are coming in the near future. He states that the Canadian Government is unambiguously against weapons in space. Does this mean that we are negotiating to participate this year with the intention to withdraw from missile defence when the space-based weapons are ready? If our government is against weapons in space, why even start to get involved in this project? This is the question I would like to see debated. --------------------------------------------- I've lost count of how many letters on a disastrous, Canadian funded gold-mining project I have attempted to get published in both papers. Here, none were published. So thanks to the Peace and Environment News for letting me have my say! PEN article on Sept. 24 peace rally. PEN article on Peace Building. PEN article on Canadian Gold Mine (or Download PDF Version of Canadian Gold Mine article with pictures included.) Close
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