Nuclear Forces Quotes
This quotation illustrates a facet of science that often affects politics. At the time there had been much new information that tended to give more and more support to the notion of the atom. Most physics were by then convinced that there were atoms and that they seemed to behave just like Newton’s laws predicted that all bodies would. Mach however, would not even accept the fact that atoms really existed. He was not just any scientist but one of the better and more prestigious physicists in the world. New ideas are rarely accepted by all, even in the scientific disciplines. In the late 20th century scientific evidence began to be amassed indicating that there was global warming and a significant part of it was man made. As the data kept accumulating and the results of studies were understood, the vast majority of scientists became convinced about global warming. But there were a few who did not think that there was yet sufficient evidence to reach that conclusion, just as Mach was in 1897 convinced that there the atoms existence had not been demonstrated and in his judgment he did not think that atoms were a reasonable explanation of the physical world. But the fact that he had not yet become convinced should be examined by policy makers and juxtaposed against the reasons and the evidence by the other scientists. He might have been right; however he was not. The global warming nay sayers might be right, but with each passing day, the likelihood becomes less as more evidence is aggregated and analyzed.
This was one of the great blunders of the Central Intelligence Agency in American History. As the Central Intelligence Agency was writing this report the Russians were landing missile components in Cuba. Within days the Cuban Missile Crisis would erupt. The Central Intelligence Agency also missed the Communist Takeover in China, the fall of the Berlin wall, the implosion of the Soviet Union, the Hungarian Revolution, the Iran Revolution, the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, and the Arab Spring just to list a few of the most dramatic events about which they failed to have any information in advance. At the same time they claimed that there were nuclear weapons in Iraq leading to the Iraq war and claimed the Soviets were on a track to have a better military and stronger economy—see {635791}.
