An Erie Silence

Investors Business Daily ^ | May 1, 2007 | IBD

[Wuli]

SDI: If missile defense technology is so "untested and unreliable," as Democrats keep telling us, why are the tech-savvy Japanese so hot for it?

One of the major criticisms Democrats have of the various national missile defense programs is that the tests thus far allegedly have been scripted, not representing real-life missile combat conditions, with the results mixed and unconvincing.

Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, says the operational testing is unconvincing. Over on the House side, seven Democrats, in a letter sent to former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, complained of "tests that have been highly scripted with unrealistic countermeasures, the time of the enemy launch was known and the threat came from only a single missile."

What the Democrats fail to understand is that with any major new weapons system, testing is not done all at once. Various components must be individually tested, then together, with each test getting progressively more sophisticated and complicated.

But a test last week of our sea-based Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense off the coast of Hawaii was about as realistic as it gets, short of.......

[Wuli]

One of the final statements of the article says it all:

"The Democrats pretend to worry about things like a nuke being smuggled into a U.S. port. But they're content to leave that port undefended against a Scud launched from an Iran freighter at sea."

Note how the authors were correct to say "The Democrats pretend".

[glennshepard]

Democrats want to do everything they can to achieve a balance of power, which unfortunately means allowing our enemies to compete with us militarily.

[From One - Many]

In a sense, we (the western world) may be pretending. Although a defense shield is a great and wonderful thing, my best estimate is we (the western world) will have no defense against the weapon(s) to be used against us. I wish not to paint a picture of hopelessness but with the likelihood of a different type of weapon being used instead of missiles, there would be little or no defense. The missile shield will / can protect the western world from the missile threat but other threats loom even larger. JMHO

[Wildbill22]

The Russian SA-10 and soon SA-20 SAM system currently rings the Russian cities, bases and countryside. This system is similar to Patriot, only a faster and longer ranged missile, capable of intercepting ballistic missiles to some degree, and certainly with it’s nuclear warhead installed.
The only indigenous defensive missile system in the US was the Nike Hercules, a similar capable system that was tested against ballistic threats successfully. The US dismantled the US continental Nike Hercules system in the 1970’s. There is presently no US system to protect US cities and bases in the US.

[BenLurkin]

An Erie silence:

[BenLurkin]

An Erie silence...

[Thermalseeker]

Democrats want to do everything they can to achieve a balance of power

DemocRats don't want a "balance" of power. They want the whole banana. Remember, partisanship is Republicans espousing their ideology. Bipartisanship is everyone going along with the DemocRat party line....

[Wuli]

“I wish not to paint a picture of hopelessness but with the likelihood of a different type of weapon being used instead of missiles, there would be little or no defense.”

Which is why my biggest concern about our intelligence apparatus is that they seem to be incapable of thinking outside the box.

[glennshepard]

I wasn’t talking about domestic balance of power...

[Gritty]