Instituting Sweeping Missile Defense.

“Instituting sweeping missile defense” is a phrase that appears in the November 30,2007 Wall Street Journal in an editorial page piece about Fred Thompson by Kimberly A. Strassel. He would like to do it.

Where to begin? Simple. The role of engineering talent.

In 1950 America did not need a missile defense, no one had intercontinental missiles. The U.S. was the first country to fasten them into a military reality. She used that to make Russia and China vulnerable. But after some period of time, Russia and then China developed a real world capability to strike the U.S. with missiles. Clearly, something did not work out to give America more security in the real world. The U.S. became vulnerable after she had made Russia and China vulnerable.

Engineering talent made Russia and China vulnerable. Later, engineering talent made the U.S. vulnerable.

The candidates that are pushing missile defense should be asked one question: What if your ambition to create a dense system for the U.S., while maintaining an offensive system that makes Russia and China vulnerable, results in Russia and China creating offensive systems in space that will “crowd” America’s defensive system? What if that means that the time to correct a mistake moves from an hour to ten minutes?

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