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| India-Pakistan |
| Saying no to Star Wars |
| 2008-01-06 |
| By Praful Bidwai Among the many dubious ideas that former United States President Ronald Reagan embraced, two were particularly dangerous. The first was that "a limited nuclear war" with the Soviet Union could be fought and won. The second held that the US could reliably secure itself against nuclear weapons by building Star Wars-style ballistic missile defence (BMD). BMD would detect launches of the enemy's nuclear-tipped missiles using satellites and radars, and then intercept them during flight. This would not only take the sting out of a deadly threat; it would render the enemy's nuclear deterrent ineffectual. If the US took the lead in BMD. it would acquire supreme, unmatched power. |
| Posted by:john frum |
| #7 CHINESE MIL FORUM > NATIONAL ABM SYSTEMS. Rise of Japanese ABM/BMD and others. Artikle indics that both post-Cold War Amer + Russia now view bipolar mutual destruction as obsolete, requiring substantive changes to long-standing Cold War treatises or protocols. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-01-06 22:14 |
| #6 Star Wars never would have worked (but the Soviets didn't know that). Ballistic missile defense is is designed to defend against a few or quite probably ONE missile launched by a terrorist organization or country (NK, Iran). The problem with Star Wars is that the problem of defense did not scale linearly (in terms of computer processing power required - it was an NP problem). BMD is a much simpler problem than the original goal of Star Wars and is feasible. But the key issue - they are two VERY different classes of problem. |
| Posted by: DMFD 2008-01-06 21:17 |
| #5 Dumbass. BDM is more against rogue Nuclear states (such as North Korea, Pakistan, Iran and others) who have never signed the ABM treaty and should never be trusted to honor such a treaty given their past record. We cannot rely on any treaty with Iran which has proven they cannot be trusted to honor any treaty nor rely on mutually assured destruction (MAD) to deter them either - the Mullahs would be more then willing to sacrifice most (if not all) of their fellow Iranians in order to bring about the return of the 12th Imam from his hole in the ground. And Pakistan is only two steps away from becoming an Iran or worse. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2008-01-06 09:46 |
| #4 Anything written by a "human rights activist" can be ignored. What a load of rubbish. |
| Posted by: Spot 2008-01-06 09:07 |
| #3 Bidwai opposes the Indian Nuclear program (both civilian and nuclear) and is worried about the effect of BMD on Pakistan. Pakistan's nukes and missiles are Chinese in origin and they are incapable of developing BMD. Their Chinese patrons have no system available. Pak will be forced to spend even higher amounts on offensive missiles and this deeply worries Bidwai, who has a soft spot for the Paks. |
| Posted by: john frum 2008-01-06 07:22 |
| #2 Star Wars was a bluff from the get-go Not. I worked on the mid-80s programs. Had Clinton & the Congress not shut them down, we would have had a full up BMD by the time Bush took office. |
| Posted by: lotp 2008-01-06 07:19 |
| #1 Dumbass - Star Wars was a bluff from the get-go. It forced the Soviets to face the possiblity of having their enormously expensive nuclear deterrent made obsolete at a stroke, thus giving them the jolt to let a little freedom into their country. And, there is no such thing as a little bit of freedom. |
| Posted by: gromky 2008-01-06 00:21 |