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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: CYBERKEN who wrote (206934)	12/4/2001 3:42:59 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

Maybe. But for 'total spectrum dominance' as they say... to defend from sea and land level, to mid and high altitude, to space, one would need a pretty foolproof system. And to get to ".999" success rate could cost more than we could ever raise. The advantage would seem to always be with the initial attacker in this game. As long as warheads are MIRVed (not with balloons, but with multiple dummy warheads), & or short burn cycles are used. Of course, if we ever extend this system to space (which is where it must be to ever hope to have any kind of dominant effect... able to target missiles in the initial stages of their launch where they are the easiest to hit, and the most vulnerable: see my comments in the earlier post about the foolishness of not advancing development of the National Aero-Space Plane, the Shuttle's follow-on replacement)... yes, if we ever do achieve a highly reliable system, at whatever cost.... Than any potential adversaries would - quite logically - switch to tactics that are more effective in the new environment: Nukes loaded on tramp freighters steaming in international waters, sub delivery systems, 'briefcase' bombs delivered by human agents, radiological and biological attacks which are vastly more cost effective, etc. We could expend our national treasure building a "new Maginot Line" (note that the original Maginot Line was totally effective at what it was intended for: the Germans never attacked it directly with any success... they simply - and cost-effectively - marched around it), and any potential aggressor would simply take the cheap route around it. It is possible to weaken our strength as a nation by diverting too much money to this project too soon (and by not building the most important and high-value-returned part of it: the National Aero-Space Plane), and by neglecting other important national security needs.