"During the Trump Administration, to truly make America great again, we need to have our defenses made great. No time like the present. This would be like our moonshot from the 60's. Yes, we can do this, and we can do it now!"
I have been accused in the past, of living too much in the past. To that charge I plead guilty. I really enjoy talking about the Reagan years. In particular how this former "B grade actor", who somehow got into the White House (and stayed there for eight years), convinced the Soviet Union it was time for them to break up and go home. And a big part of this charade to get them to do so was the now famous (and non-existent) Star Wars ABM system.
To keep the Soviets believing our Star Wars ABM system had teeth, the Gipper would also tell the American people this new system was going to revolutionize nuclear war. That is, revolutionize it so much it would end it. Make it obsolete. All of a sudden, the 1960's kids, who grew up practicing "duck and cover" in the event of a nuclear attack, had hope for the future. Nuclear war was about to become obsolete. But that was before we found out Reagan's Star Wars was about as real as the George Lucas Star Wars movies.
What would I like to see for our future defenses against an ICBM attack? First, let us look to see where we are today. We all know about the THAAD system. Been around for a while and has gone through some upgrades. We also have our BDM system and the Patriot system. Plus we have mobile BDM sites - they are located on everyone of our DDG ships and some of our AEGIS class cruisers. So right now we are not totally helpless - we have something. How good would it be in the event of an attack? Depends who you ask. Bottom line - not invincible.
I would love to see our future defense grid to be named after Ronald Reagan. We could call it the Reagan Defense Shield. Our new defense grid I believe, would be more of what Ronald Reagan envisioned. Maybe not using space based lasers, but ground based as well as lasers on ships and aircraft. I know we are currently working on this concept. I also believe our new Reagan Defense Shield would have rail guns, particle ray weapons, electrothermal technology, and so on.
Could you imagine our world right now if we had the Reagan Defense Shield up and running? We could tell that nut ball kid from North Korea to go stuff himself. Our country, our allies, would be safe from nuclear attack. From any kind of missile attack. I think if we can make it through this latest crisis with the Norks, it should be a wake up call for us. We need better. Our current grid is good, but not great. A Reagan Defense Shield would be great.
During the Trump Administration, to truly make America great again, we need to have our defenses made great. No time like the present. This would be like our moonshot from the 60's. Yes, we can do this, and we can do it now!
Great sentiments regarding the Reagan era, but the US has neither the will nor the wherefore to spend vast sums of money on missile defense.
ReplyDeleteWe will continue to improve the GMD (Ground Based Midcourse Defense) system located in California and Alaska, but little money will be made available for anything else.
The assumption being that the major nuclear powers are not a threat. The despot nations are the ones likely to do something stupid. So NORK and Iran are the focus.
Diplomacy is still the cheapest, most effective deterrent to nuclear war and we had better increase our skills in this arena.
DJT may have to dust off his best seller, "The Art of the Deal" and provide the kind of leadership the US needs to get this threat onto the back burner where it belongs and move on to "Making America Great Again".
Have a great day,
David Gjerdingen