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opinion:
our view
Make love, not
lasers
In a speech Tuesday,
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld outlined a bold new plan
in which the military would deploy weapons in space to protect
us from all the boogeymen that pose a threat to national security.
The plan resurrects
the mythical "Star Wars" plan dreamed up by Ronald
Reagan, which was envisioned as a battalion of lasers in space
that would obliterate any incoming ballistic missile from
the evil Soviet Empire.
In reality, the
plan is just a way for the government to create overinflated
scenarios of destruction so they can justify giving billions
of dollars to their friends in the defense industry to spend
on weapons that do not work.
The plan was unfeasible
then, and it is unfeasible now.
To begin with,
most attempts at a missile intercept system have never worked.
When the missiles that were supposed to intercept the incoming
target kept missing, the military just changed the definition
of "hit" to mean an interception that comes within
10 miles of its target.
Despite the wonderful
footage on CNN that showed every U.S. missile going down the
chimney of its intended Iraqi target during the Gulf War,
the actual success rate was much lower.
If a proposed weapon
was able to fire a laser, we also must take into consideration
where it would land when it misses the target. An intercepting
missile would attempt to intercept its target on the way and
would land in the ocean if it missed.
An intercepting
laser that misses its target would blast a hole into whatever
poor soul that happened to be underneath it, even you.
We will not even
begin to discuss how many treaties a missile defense system
would violate, but Rumsfeld's comments that treaties with
the Soviet Union are no longer valid because the country no
longer exists must be taken with a grain of salt.
When the Soviet
Union broke up, one country insisted all the splinter states
created must abide by treaties signed by the Soviets. That
country? The United States, of course.
Unfortunately,
we cannot hold onto the hope that plans for a space missile
will die with the end of the Bush administration.
Bombarding Congress
with angry letters is probably just as pointless, as those
same defense contractors give money to them also. We'll just
sit around and wait for peace to break out; that's just as
likely to happen.
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