The world changed after Sept. 11. I guess I was wrong to assume we would too.
The Soviet threat is over, as is the Cold War. During the entirety of the Cold War, there was not a single exchange of fire between the Soviet Union and the United States.
While other conflicts raged on, the dreaded nuclear armageddon never happened.
Nuclear weapons still exist, and the absolute nature of the weapons is enough to scare logical leaders into even thinking of the possibility of using them. We have entered into an era of deterrence.
Some may argue that the threat of a nuclear conflict will keep big states from attacking each other with nuclear weapons for fear of a nuclear retaliation. The more states that get nuclear weapons, the less likely they are to attack one another for fear of such an absolute weapon.
What the United States doesn’t understand is that the massive destruction part about nuclear weapons does not depreciate over time, so making nuclear weapons bigger and badder than ever is pointless because the first ones caused so much damage, those alone would deter any state from attacking the other.
It also doesn’t take very many nuclear warheads to keep a state from attacking you, so it’s not necessary to have a massive arsenal.
The last attack on American soil had nothing to do with nuclear weapons or sophisticated weapons, yet the Bush administration is dead-set on developing a missile defense system, something that would only be pertinent if there was a real threat from another large state.
Even still, would it really be worth developing if it can’t work 100 percent of the time?
What about that 2 percent or 3 percent that gets through, overrides the system and destroys several cities in the United States? Is that considered adequate by the Bush administration’s standards?
It’s not for me. Even so, the question I can’t help but ask myself all the time is, “But what about the extremists? Wouldn’t they detonate a nuclear weapon if they got their hands on one?” I say sure, why not if only to prove yet another point.
I guess that’s the fear the Bush administration is trying to use to justify spending $10.7 billion for missile defense, more than twice as much as for any other single weapons system, according to a report from msn.com.
What people don’t think about is the development of a missile defense system by the United States is an incentive for more states to get nuclear weapons quicker than they would out of fear that the United States would not stop itself from using nuclear weapons under the comfort of a defense system.
Instead of telling other states, “Sure, we’ll share weapons with you as long as you secure them in and make sure no crazies get their hands on them,” the United States throws more money into a missile defense program that won’t work.
That seems to be a trend with our current administration. We don’t seem to want to talk to smaller states as if they are our equals. Taking a woman’s perspective, most potential conflicts between the United States and Joe Blow foreigner could be avoided if we just listened to what they had to say before disrupting their way of life and further irritating them.
Even the most advanced military technology is not accurate enough to shoot down a bullet with another bullet. According to the msn.com report, “In the past six years of flight tests, here is what the Pentagon’s missile-defense agency has demonstrated: A missile can hit another missile in mid-air as long as a) the operators know exactly where the target missile has come from and where it’s going; b) the target missile is flying at a slower-than-normal speed; c) it’s transmitting a special beam that exaggerates its radar signature, thus making it easier to track; d) only one target missile has been launched; and e) the ‘attack’ happens in daylight.”
We can equate this missile defense program to the Maginot Line in France between World War I and World War II.
It was thought to be the most sophisticated defense system ever thought up, but it didn’t stop Germany from invading France and taking it over in 15 days.
If defense is a real priority for this government, they should be
using our tax money to protect us from real threats, even nuclear threats that can come in the form of a plane, bus, car, boat, suitcase or something else another missle can’t shoot down.