Re: Minimum Nuclear Deterrence - reply to Dr. Roy

[Charu datt <charu@ix.netcom.com>]

Vamsi Musunuru wrote:

>   1. It can be shown that Military research has benifited the American
> Industry with inventions like the Diode, Transistor, Internet, in the
furture,
>
> High Definition TV, etc.  I can only imagine how many Jobs these
inventions
> have created.

This is incorrect [though this thinking is widespread]. The transistor was
invented at Bell Labs, at the time, a state sanctioned monopoly. The way it
worked was that in exchange for the monopoly on phone business in the US,
the
company [AT&T/Bell System] was to operate at a profit no higher than a
certain
amount [I think it was 9 or 12%]. To accomplish this, surplus revenues were
plowed into, among other things,  pure and applied research at Bell Labs.
The
transistor was NOT the product of military research, neither was HDTV. The
resarch that led to the internet in the US was funded by the US department
of
defense but there is no reason to believe that civilian funding would not
have
accomplished the same result. For a good analysis of how US military
spending is
used as a tool of Keynesian Economic pump-priming see

>   2. A strong Military is vital for protecting National Interests and
esteem.

I think we need to be very careful in clearly defining "National Interest".
I've
seen the term frequently abused to avoid accountability. What do you mean
by
"National Interest"?.

>   3. It would also give a global role for India which means we have to
stay on
>
>      top of things if we are going to survive.

What global role do you see for India?

-Charu


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