Current Events — HabitableZone

Current Events » in reply to you lost me completely

I'm afraid I'm going to have to side with Tom on this one.
ER — (archived)

I was bitterly opposed to ABM systems during the cold war because they were a destabilizing factor in the arms race and had limited usefulness against a big strike from someone like the Soviets. They were primarily an aid to a first-strike strategy. It was also technologically easier to develop counters to them than to upgrade them to respond to those countermeasures.

OTOH, with small opponents with deadly but very limited resources, like the North Koreans, a small ABM capability is capable of totally complicating their strategy at a relatively modest cost to us, and they are no threat to the security of our more responsible potential opponents, like Russia and China. Even if the sytem is of a limited effectiveness, say 50 percent, it still makes the NKs think twice.

It also gives us a chance to avoid the dilemma of having to destroy tens of millions of innocents just to avenge the loss of one city due to the decision of one villain.

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