Obama Should Back Missile Defense
By Examiner Editorial
- 11/19/08
Obama should not wait till Jan. 20, 2009, to clarify his position. The moral case for completing the world’s first functional missile defense is compelling. Ballistic missile attacks on the U.S. homeland could kill millions of Americans if the weapon carried a nuclear, chemical, or biological warhead. If we can knock down those incoming missiles as soon as possible after they are launched, countless lives would be saved. Saving lives, especially in defense of human freedom, is a moral good. And missile defense is workable. On Nov. 1, the Navy successfully tested the sea-based components of the missile defense system, destroying an incoming missile target. On Sept. 28, the Army tested its land-based system, killing another incoming missile target. This was the sixth success in ten tests of the missile defense system. The liberal line that missile defense is a fanciful “Star Wars” scheme is so outdated as to be either a delusion or a purposeful lie.
The subject arises anew this month because Russian President Dmitri Medvedev immediately greeted Obama’s election victory with a threat to build new missiles in Kalingrad to target the missile defense installations the U.S. has planned in Poland. Two days later, when Obama spoke to Polish President Lech Kaczynski, Obama still couldn’t achieve clarity. Right after the meeting, Kaczynski released a press statement expressing relief that Obama had said that “the missile defense project would continue,” but then Obama’s transition team demurred, saying “President-elect Obama made no commitment on it.” Obama needs to heed the cautionary example of Jimmy Carter, whose vacillations in Iran preceded the capture of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. To save lives, reassure allies and put enemies on notice, Obama should make a full commitment now to complete development and deployment of the U.S. missile defense system.
3 Comments
Reader Comments:
POSTED Nov 19, 2008
John Dillinger: "The most heartening thing since the election is that conservatives haven't figured out that their focus on issues that are a priority to only a small segment of the population--and a small segment that has been wrong on just about every issue of consequence the past 20 years--is what is costing them elections. Carry on guys, at this rate we'll have 85 Democratic Senators in a few years."POSTED Nov 19, 2008
John Dillinger: "The most heartening thing since the election is that conservatives haven't figured out that their focus on issues that are a priority to only a small segment of the population--and a small segment that has been wrong on just about every issue of consequence the past 20 years--is what is costing them elections. Carry on guys, at this rate we'll have 85 Democratic Senators in a few years."POSTED Nov 19, 2008
: "Russia does not like the existence of an anti-missile system because it challenges the old MAD doctrine of holding each other's citizens hostage to the hostile intents and actions of the opposing country. A missile shield of any kind will surely upset this MAD balance of power and Russia knows this. Obama had better figure out quickly that to cave on this issue for the sake of "international respectability" is to display moral and strategic weakness to the world and Russia. Although this writer shudders to utter such words, remember that the current missile shield was given the go ahead by Bill Clinton! Obama ought to learn from that fact alone. Dillinger: There has not been a Republican conservative in a prominent position since the days of Reagan simply because the Republicans failed to continue on with the conservative ideals that Reagan stood for and simply aped the democrats. Why vote Republican then they stand for the same ideas that the Democrats hold?"