In the annals of history, today may be remembered as the time
when the earth tottered on the brink of peace, and fell back
into the abyss of an uncontrolled nuclear arms race.  Consider 
what was offered to Reagan in Iceland: A 50% cut in balistic missiles
over the next 5 years with a goal of TOTAL ELIMINATION within
ten.  COMPLETE REMOVAL of all medium range nuclear missiles from
Europe and a limit of only 100 launchers in Asia.  Given the
recent concessions by the Soviets regarding on-site verification,
cheating by either side would be virtually impossible.  

What price would the US have to pay to drastically reduce the nuclear 
threat to human civilization? Just that Star Wars be confined to 
laboratory research for the next ten years, and that any deployment
after that time be subject to negotiation between the US and USSR.
Sadly for humanity, Reagan refused to give up his pipe dream of
an invulnerable shield for the US, and the summit ended in failure.
Reagan's position is incomprehensible if you accept his rhetoric
that SDI is a "purely defensive" shield for the US population;
what's the point of Star Wars if the missiles it is designed to
shield against are eliminated?  On the other hand, it makes perfect
sense if what Reagan is after is a shield to enhance the possibility
of a sucessful US first strike against the Soviets.  

Reagan's positon is not one that that the Russians could possibly
accept, at least if they have any sense.  He wants both the US and
Russia to reduce their arsenals, while the US develops and tests
a defensive system.  Then, just at the time when we have a partially
effective defense complete, Russia's stockpile would be
reduced to the point where Star Wars might have some chance of success
and we could wipe them out with relative impunity with our remaining
warheads.  It's like a party to a Mexican standoff sugessting: "To
increase our security let's both get rid of all our bullets but one,
and meanwhile I'll put on this bulletproof vest". 

All I can hope for is that Gorbachev lasts in power until 1988 and
that a more reasonable man replaces the extremely dangerous
president we have now.  Reagan had a chance to end the arms race
and blew it; lets hope we all survive long enough for wiser heads
to prevail.

From everything I've read, technologists say that SDI will never work.
Isn't it interesting that the soviets are willing to give up so much
to stop something that will never work? Maybe Reagan wants the Soveits
to give up more than just 50% of their arsenal in the next 5 years.
Wouldn't it be amazing if Reagan can get the Soviets to make a really
major concession for fear of something that would never work anyway?
I don't think I would want to play poker with Reagan.

	
	I agree with Max 200%.  

	I think Chris is giving Mr Reagan MUCH to much credit as a Poker 
	player. 

	They don't teach poker in acting class.. only listening to the 
	director.. and Mr Reagan does that very, very well.

						jfs

I don't think SDI could ever protect the US from the USSR or the
USSR from the US.  Neither would continue to exist, politically if
not physically, if either decided to attack with nukes.  SDI, if it
ever works, just might protect both from a nuclear terrorist, who
has an interest in seeing the whole world go belly-up.

The failure at the summit was in being able to trust on another 
just a little bit.  Reagan's administration thinks the USSR wants
to govern the US, and the USSR thinks the US wants to govern them,
when each already is stretched to the limit.  We must find a way
to work together to protect the whole world from real threats.

There is considerably more in common between the two nations than
each wants to admit.

Personally, I don't believe that the USSR is really willing to flush their
nukes just because some lab bat shot a hole in the wall (and on the other hand
I have read printed rumors that NASA has done SDI tests that only involve smart
missles in space based clusters) but I do believe that the USSR probably knows
more about the actual potential of SDI than the US public because they are
willing to spend large amounts of cash to find out what we are really up to.
Just the fact that they have made such a radical offer indicates that their
intelligence has told them that SDI is real. I don't think that they would just
take Mr. Ronnie's word for it (and will someone please tell me why the
President is announcing to the world what our defense engineers are doing in
the lab?) and you can bet that they are developing one of their own. Our
President is quoted as saying "In god we trust, all others pay cash" in Russian
at the summit which shows what a pinhead he really is. He should be removed
from office immediately. In SDI I trust and I'll program it for cash in
advance. I don't believe the pop technoligists who doubt that star wars will
work because even Albert Einstein said MAN WILL NEVER SEE THE INSIDE OF THE
ATOM. And for that matter I don't believe that E is equal to exactly MC**2, I
mean it could have been MC**2.0139576 or even MC**300,069**1.0594631. And what
ever happened to nuclear winter anyway? Does anyone really believe that
implementing star wars and pushing the button will only destroy the USSR? How
can hundreds of cities be destroyed and not affect the rest of the world? The
USSR offer is bogus and had we aggreed to their terms they would still build
more nukes and even more strongly consider to use them. And now for even more
opinions please stand by for: 

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                  the DISINFORMATION SYSTEM has
	       been made available to certain systems

          To receive on non MIKE or SANDY systems just type:

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       (Sorry but MIKE and SANDY are currently excommunicated)

A lot of messages on the system have used the following argument: "If
Star Wars doesn't work, why are the Russians afraid enough of it that
they are willing to give up 50% of their balistic missiles to prevent
the US from testing it over the next 10 years?".  The fallacy here is
that SDI does not have to work very well to pose a severe threat to
Russia's security.  A very "leaky" space defense system would not
protect the US population in any meaningful sense from a massive
Russian first strike attack, but could easily fend off the weakened
retaliation to a US first strike against Soviet strategic targets.
Star Wars, in direct contradiction to Reagan's rhetoric, is effectively
an offensive system which could allow the US to destroy Russia with
reduced casualties.

Obviously the Russians can not accept the US being able to destroy
them with relative impunity.  The US developed nuclear weapons in
the first place, is the only nation in the world to have used them
in anger, and consistently has refused to adopt a policy of "no first
use" for these weapons.  Authoritative sources have documented
many times since world war II when US presidents have seriously
considered using nuclear weapons in regional conflicts, the last by
Richard Nixon in Vietnam.  Given this history, why should they
trust us with their lives?  As I see it, they have four options
at this point:

1.  Try to negotiate an end to SDI development before a system
is deployed.  If they offer, as they have, the mutual elimination
of the missiles that SDI is designed to protect against, there is
no legitimate reason for the US to not agree.  This is the best
option for the Russians, the American people, and humanity at
large.

2.  Try to develop a SDI system of their own.  Since they lag far
behind in most of the necessary technologies, especially computation
and intelligent computer software, this is not very viable.  The
Russians could easily wind up bankrupting their country in a
race where if you come in second you are completely at the
mercy of your opponent.

3.  Embark on a massive nuclear buildup to overwhelm any possible
defense system.  Star Wars is very expensive and completely
speculative, while nuclear weapons are fairly cheap and known to
work.  This aproach will be tough for the USSR given their
economic condition, but if they feel their lives depend on it
they will take it, and the world will take another step toward
ultimate disaster.

4.  If SDI looks like it will work, the Soviets can't build
up fast enough to be sure of overwhelming it, and the US won't
negotiate the Russians have a final option.  The destruction
they would experience from the retaliation to a USSR first strike
made before SDI is operational would be small compared to that
from a US first strike afterward.  Especially in a time of 
international tension, the temptation to cut their losses by
wiping us out before it's too late for them could be overpowering.

Gorbachev proposed solution #1 in Iceland.  Hopefully hearts
will change and it will be accepted, or we'll see some combination
of 2,3, or 4 over the next decade.

The Russians have promised not to be the first nation to use nuclear weapons.
It is an easy promise to keep. They cannot be the first; we were.

	Jed

Another way of looking at this situation (Not necessarily my way of seeing it)
is that the Russians believe that Reagan will not negotiate SDI at all.

   Therefore they can offer the world, with utter conviction that their bluff 
will never be called. Thus they are in a position to say to the world:-
"Look what we offered, and the Americans turned down, Now whose the bad guy?".

   It would seem to be a great publicity coup for the current "good image"
hungry administration of the USSR.


Maybe that is why its called Russian roulette??

First strike? Successful first stike? A successful first strike in the arena of
nuclear war means wiping out every single nuke of your opponent and somehow
sealing off your whole country's environment from the rest of the world. If
only a few of the opponents nukes survive your 'first strike' they can destroy
every non-shielded electrical device (every car, radio, computer, etc.) with
the EMP from just 2 or 3 well placed nukes above your country as well as blind
every unprotected animal. Just blinding the non-human animals will effectively
destroy some or not all of the world's ecology. So even if you blast all of the
other guy's nukes the radio-toxic smog from your 'succesfully' destroyed
opponent could block out the sun for as much as a year. The US arsenal could
cause this effect 100 times over. If you somehow conduct a 'clean' attack (with
no blinding flashes) then the contamination of the world's air and seas from
the opponent's destroyed industries could make survival very interesting for
quite some time. But still who can say that the clean destruction of a country
could not ultimately destroy the world's ecology? In the case of the 'first
strike' the winner suffers the most and the loser dies quite humainly (well
most of them anyway). 

So can the USSR get their own 'Star Wars'? There is an article on my office
wall that says they can and cheaply. Is it propaganda? Probably.

CORRECTION: Comrade Albert actually said that science would never crack open
the atom. If Comrade Albert can be wrong then so can the people who say that
SDI won't work. (and then again maybe not) If it does work can it get every
single nuke? What about short range missles from submarines that never become
ballistic? Could the actual use of SDI be to keep civilian populations in line? 

The invention of nuclear weapons was an accidental stroke of good luck to a
country that was tired of fighting WWII. The responsible scientists were
inspired by the unbelievable actions of Mr. Adolph and unfortunately another
country got the package meant for him. I do not believe that the USSR has
considered the limited use of nukes less than the US. I believe we just know
less about what their leaders say in private. 

So let the USSR go bankrupt building more nukes or their own 'star wars'
and let the US continue the develop and implement SDI. The research could
have valuable side effects (such as in body viewing of molecules with the
X-ray laser) and the USSR won't push the button if they can't instantly
vaporize US (regardless of whether they believe they'll live happily ever
after).

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          *             W E L C O M E S   Y O U               *
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      recent changes in the universe have allowed us to announce that
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	Maybe it's time we stopped asking questions like, "will Star Wars
really work?" and started asking the important questions.  Like, "How do we
sign up for those big defense contracts?" 

	I know this is going to be a little controversial, but I'm proposing
that Atari offer to write the software for the SDI project. 

	Few people realize it, but we are one of the leaders in this field.
We wrote the very first Star Wars software, and it worked perfectly.  We have a
great deal of expertise in the areas of collision detection and tracking of
motion objects.  We have done precise and detailed simulations of
anti-ballistic-missile warfare.  And top military and government leaders
seem to feel that the implementation of SDI software is as simple as, say,
adding a few (hundred million) extra lines of code to our Missile Command
software. 

	Since the name "Atari" might be a handicap for this particular
application, I suggest we bring back our Kee Games subsidiary.  This has the
added advantage that if the software doesn't work right the first time, it
won't damage Atari's reputation. 

	Frankly, I think we all know that a lot of the companies who are out
there raking in big SDI bucks would never be able to survive in the kind of
rough-and-tumble competitive marketplace which we thrive on.  Would you feel
any safer if the software for SDI were written by Lockheed or McDonnell
Douglas?  I know I wouldn't. 

Critics of the proposed SDI system have charged that it will require
the extensive use of computers with millions of lines of code which will 
never be completely tested unless the system is actually used.

Also, the system would somehow have to deal with new threats (new weapons)
which it was not pre-programmed to recognize.

There is a solution to this problem which Atari is uniquely able to provide.

Under an appropriate Defense Contract Atari could set up special "arcades",
starting with one in each major U.S. city. These "arcades" would contain
"video games" which would in actuality be running a simulation of the SDI
system. The consoles could be connected to have player versus player or
the entire "arcade" could be operated as a team, playing the teams in other
cities.

The kids will find all the bugs and figure out strategies that the SDI planners
had never considered.The activities will be appropriately monitored so that 
these bugs (and new strategies) can be recognized and applied to the real SDI 
system.

These centers can also help by identifying talented perspective personnel.

The cost to the players will be the same as other video games. (If they
were on Free Play the kids would get quickly bored.)

The Russians will have their agents spend time in these centers to test
the capabilities of the system. Good. The monitoring equipment will detect
any successful new strategies.

PS - I hope the "real" SDI system can point away from the earth as well as
     toward it. It would be really terrific if we were invaded by creatures
     from space and had a defense system that we couldn't turn around. 
     Like a kind of cosmic Maginot Line. 


	Jed

BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH,
BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, ETC. SDI, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH.