Germ Warfare had eliminated need for a shield.
Hardly. In fact, germ warfare is probably one of the greatest reasons for an anti-missile defense system.
Destroying missiles at the upper stages of their boost stage, or better yet, in outer space itself before warhead reentry contains those pesky little viruses where they belong, in a complete vacuum.
But more than that, it provides a strong political incentive to aligned with US interests, as well as the assurance that no other nation will be able to deter our retaliation.
Sure, people try to claim that the US would use it as a pre-emptive strike capability, but that's been shown to be an utter fallacy given previous US positions of utter dominance (late '40s and early '50s) when the US could have (should have?) launched pre-emptive strikes against our rivals/enemies.
Furthermore, a missle defense system is a natural progression from defense against missiles fired from rogue states, and the aptly named policy of M.A.D., but lays the groundwork of an anti-meteor defense system.
And meteors, I'm convinced, are the real threat to mankind because of our current inability to detect the smaller ones wtih enough warning, nor the capability to destroy or divert them.
We've had several VERY near misses over the past several years, the most recent back in December, where an asteroid was only discovered several days before passing in close proximity to the earth. Had it landed, it would have left a crater very similar to the one in Arizona.
But most of all, it "encourages" the rest of the world to stay in line behind the US and discouraging a regression to a multi-polar international system.
And I think we'll get the Russians to sign on to boot, because it will align their interests (as a foil against China) with those of the US, and peripherally, Europe.
Hawk |
