Common Sense Of Missile Defense Continues To Elude Policymakers Common Sense Of Missile Defense Continues To Elude Policymakers

Brian T. Kennedy in Investor's Business Daily: Common Sense Of Missile Defense Continues To Elude Policymakers asks why we don't have a viable missle defense system in place now, and won't for the forseeable future.

My answer is similar to his, that those on the left are still pathologically wedded to their position in the Cold War, where it was assummed that a missle defense system would antagnonize the Soviet Union. But here today, it would not be aimed at either Russia or China, but rather rogue states like North Korea. Remember the screams of outrage when this President Bush finally withdrew us from the ABM treaty with the no-longer existant U.S.S.R.? This treaty had been hobbling our missle defense for decades, as it purposely degraded anti-missle accuracy. No wonder so many of those Patriot missles missed in the first Gulf War - they had been designed and built under that treaty. Yet, without the party with whom we signed the treaty still in existance, the liberals and peaceniks screamed anyway. Somehow it is immoral for Americans to protect themselves from those in the rest of the world who wish us evil, and have the wherewithall to do so.

Indeed, to some extent, we can look at Israel and see the reason that such a system is essential. Hezbollah is shooting a lot of missles they got from Syria into Israel right now. And the Syrians got them from the Iranians, who got some of their technology from the North Koreans. Luckily for the Israelis right now, the Iranian made missles are not all that accurate - yet. But there will come a day, very soon, when some of the missle guidance technology that Clinton essentially gave to the Chinese filters its way back around the world, and then, those missles will be a lot more accurate.

One thing that Kennedy didn't mention was that several of our allies are much more keen on developing viable missle defense systems. Notable here, of course, is Israel, for what are now very obvious reasons. But also keen is Japan, and to understand the reason for their interest, we don't have to look further than the recent North Korean ballestic missle tests.

I have worked with engineers from both of these countries. With the Israelis involved, we can quickly make an anti-missle defense system work. And with the Japanese, it can be made to work highly reliably for a decent price.