Posted on 11/19/2012 2:39:36 PM PST by SeekAndFind
The latest Gaza war is only a few days old, but already one conclusion can be drawn: missile defense works. This is only the latest vindication for the vision of Ronald Reagan who is emerging as a consensus pick for one of the all-time great U.S. presidents.
For it was Ronald Reagan who made missile defense a major priority for the U.S. and our allies. His 1983 speech on the subject was widely derided as “Star Wars” because he envisioned that some missile would be intercepted in space. For years critics claimed that it was impossible to intercept missiles in flight, or that at the very least it would be prohibitively expensive to do so. But now the U.S. West Coast is actually protected by a limited ballistic-missile defense system based primarily around satellites, sea-based Aegis and X-band radars, and Standard Missile-3 interceptors. We don’t know how the system would work in combat but it has been vindicated in testing.
The U.S. has also cooperated with numerous allies to develop more tactical missiles defenses designed to stop rockets, not in their boost phase, but just before they hit. One of those projects is the Iron Dome system that Israel launched after the 2006 war in Lebanon, during which Hezbollah bombarded northern Israel with thousands of rockets. Today Iron Dome, which is still officially listed as experimental, is operational–and it is blunting Hamas’s missile-offensive against Israel.
According to the Israeli Embassy in Washington: “In the last 4 days: 544 rockets fired from Gaza hit Israel + 302 Iron Dome interceptions = 846 rockets fired at us.” The fact that only 302 of 846 rockets were intercepted (36 percent) might indicate that Iron Dome is ineffective. But in fact it is expressly designed to ignore rockets headed for uninhabited areas. Israeli officials say that 90 percent of the attempted interceptions have worked, thus providing critical protection for civilian areas including Tel Aviv, where an Iron Dome battery has just been moved.
Somewhere, wherever he is now, the Gipper must be smiling.
IIRC the Israelis were also working on a lazer air defense system. Hopefully they will roll a working version out soon.
What if they are headed to Palestinian held ares?.....heh-heh......
Yet another classic example of the “left” taking positions that favor our enemies.
Haven’t heard THIS take yet! LOL Nailed it, liberal heads are exploding. And a Reagan concept of missile defense, protecting Jews.
Some are undoubtedly popping a critical vessel.
And a Reagan concept of missile defense, protecting Jews, including the only bunch of Americans living overseas who voted 85% for Romney!.
Some libs and our silly children in the Ivys are undoubtedly popping a critical vessel.
Anybody who has ever been bird hunting - doves, quail, geese - knows that any flying object can be intercepted with the right weapon.
... that’s considered “uninhabited” ...
Short range rockets and missiles - like the ones Iron Dome is engaging - are particularly challenging because they tend to not rise very far above the horizon, and they have relatively short flight times. The “engagement envelope” is probably only a few seconds long for a shoot/no-shoot decision. Probably only has time for a single shot too, maybe a double-shot on some of the longer missile tracks. Definitely not time for a “shoot-look-shoot” evaluation. That an experimental system is successful in 90% of these challenging engagements...wow. Hats off guys.
Democrats need to recognize three truths: Armed citizens reduce the crime rate; Missile defense works; and, Voter ID reduces vote fraud.
AMEN!
I never knew if SDI would work back then, no regular person could, but I did watch the Soviets to see what they thought.
I don’t recall the Soviets hating and fearing, and raging against anything, like they did against SDI, that gave me the impression that they thought it could work, but no matter what, it made the difference in the Reagan poker hand.
Obama, our first Muslim President, wants to disarm citizens to make it easier to place them in FEMA camps, he wants Iran to terrorize the US and he was reelected with massive voter fraud.
In other words, Obama says screw you and anything that is good for America.
Why would anyone be surprised that a guy named Hussein is working for Muslim terrorists. That's because Obama is a Muslim.
Obama, our first Muslim President, wants to disarm citizens to make it easier to place them in FEMA camps, he wants Iran to terrorize the US and he was reelected with massive voter fraud.
In other words, Obama says screw you and anything that is good for America.
Why would anyone be surprised that a guy named Hussein is working for Muslim terrorists. That’s because Obama is a Muslim.
***
Then we really need to repent of our sins (divorce, porn, adultery, loving money, ...) and pray earnestly and faithfully in Jesus’ name for a Christian revival, since only God can rescue us at this point.
That’s where my proposed “Iron Rubber Band” missile deflection system could come in handy...
"In the last 4 days: 544 rockets fired from Gaza hit Israel + 302 Iron Dome interceptions = 846 rockets fired at us." ...it is expressly designed to ignore rockets headed for uninhabited areas. Israeli officials say that 90 percent of the attempted interceptions have worked...And remember, this is shooting down short-arc missiles from tens of miles away -- SDI *will* have longer lead time and (other than sub-launched) predictable ranges of trajectories to worry about. The Soviets were adamant about our scrapping SDI -- and Reagan's plan was to develop it and then share it with them to enable the dismantling of nuclear arsenals -- because they have much more confidence in our abilities than do the politicians who were on the Soviet payroll. Now that OPEC has taken over, count on the continued development of SDI.
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