Re: Ada in Iraq

[Jerry Petrey <"jdpetrey<NOSPAM>"@raytheon.com>]

Preben Randhol wrote:

> Robert C. Leif wrote:
> > I can cite one counter example, myself. Having seen my graduate students go
> > off to the Vietnam War, I was and am still not enthused about military
> > action. However, the thought of applying an excellent technology that was
> > developed by the DoD, Ada, to detect cancer cells was very appealing.
> > Prejudice against a technology because of its source is stupid, just like
> > most prejudice.
>
> You are talking about something else here. I have never had any problems
> with Ada being funded by DoD. What I don't think will promote Ada is to
> talk about the usage of it in bombs and similar. Try saying "We only
> killed about 2000-3000 civilians because we used rockets programmed in
> language X" It comes out wrong in any context with civilians IMHO.
>
> Emphasis on the usage in planes, trains, air-traffic controls etc.. on
> the other hand...
>
> --
> Preben Randhol                    http://www.pvv.org/~randhol/

We certainly don�t want to kill innocent civilians in a war, which is why we
build smart weapons to minimize these unnecessary losses.  However, nothing is
perfect � there are always unexpected casualties in a war.  No one builds
airliners to crash and kill civilians either but it happens.  We try to minimize
it but it still happens.  Of course there are plenty of idiots in the world that
have no problem using an airliner full of civilians as a weapon.  There are
ruthless dictators like Saddam who have no problem torturing and killing his own
people by the thousands, or his son who uses his penis for a weapon of torture.
I, for one, am proud to be making the weapons that help rid the world of such
trash.  I'm proud to be from a country with the guts to stand up against such
people rather than burying their heads in the sand and talking about �peace and
love� while the murderers continue their sprees.  We are not perfect but we try
to do something to help give freedom to those to whom it is withheld.
Unfortunately there is always a price to pay for freedom � but there is a much
greater price to pay for letting it slip away.

I think Ada makes safer systems that minimize loss of civilian lives in many
hi-tech applications (not only weapons).  What I am concerned about is the
movement away from it today in so many areas.  I think there will be many more
unnecessary losses of lives in the future for these decisions, however well
intentioned they are.

Jerry
--
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-- Jerry Petrey
-- Senior Principal Systems Engineer - Navigation (GPS/INS), Guidance, & Control
-- Raytheon Missile Systems          - Member Team Ada & Team Forth
-- NOTE: please remove <NOSPAM> in email address to reply
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