Missile defense is imperative
October 9, 2008| By David Talbot
While the financial crisis rightly remains at the center of attention on newscasts and on the campaign trail, we must keep in mind another potential crisis issue: America's vulnerability to missile attack.
The preamble to the Constitution states that it is the government's responsibility to "provide for the common defense." Our military is therefore obligated to defend the nation against long-rang missile attack, Heritage expert Peter Brookes explains in the latest edition of Policy Review.
"Today there are 28 countries with ballistic missile arsenals of varying capability," Brookes says, and several of them pose a threat to the United States.
For example, Brookes unpacks a United Nations to find that Iran is chock-full of undisclosed programs designed to create nuclear missiles. Even now, "experts think a two-stage ballistic missile from Iran could reach all of Europe — and America's East Coast."
But Iran isn't the only threat. "North Korea," Brookes reminds us, "is already a confirmed nuclear weapons state." China, meanwhile, continues its "robust military modernization effort," while Russia seems intent on "nothing less than recreating its superpower status."
Missile defense is just common sense, Brookes continues. "In recent years, the United States decided that leaving itself deliberately vulnerable to any weapon system or state – as it did during the Cold War – was foolish. Deliberate vulnerability can lead to perceptions of weakness, inviting provocation or aggression."
Fortunately, the technology has matured such that "hitting a bullet with a bullet in the atmosphere, or even space, is now possible." In other words, missile defense technology works.
But despite these gains, the missile shield is far from complete and we remain highly vulnerable to long-range missile attack. "It only makes sense that all reasonable, necessary steps are taken to protect and advance our national security," Brookes explains. "Missile defense is about protection from these weapons no matter where the threat comes from now – or in the future."
"Missile defense is like an umbrella; it is needed only if it rains. It threatens no one," he concludes.
In March, 1983, President Ronald Reagan's introduced the missile defense program when he announced the Strategic Defense Initiative. The Heritage Foundation helped lay the intellectual groundwork for President Reagan's missile defense policy. In fact, the "High Frontier" study that formed the basis for his policy was written at Heritage.
Heritage will release 33 Minutes, a full-length, high-definition documentary about the need for missile defense, in February.
