The Folly of a Missile Defense Shield

Iran recently launched a long-range missile capable of reaching Israel and Europe. The Bush administration's reaction has been once again unfortunate yet predictable: saber-rattling with offers to deploy, to the benefit of our domestic military-industrial complex, a missile defense shield to meet this threat.

Everybody says that military might alone is not the answer, that diplomacy is also required. This is clearly underscored by the situation in Iraq.

America's policies in the Middle East are seen as imperialist, ill-conceived and biased toward Israel.

The Iranian missile test was said to be in response to Israel's threat of bombing the Iranian nuclear facility.

Russia is saber-rattling in response to the Bush administration's proposed missile defense shield in the Czech Republic and in Poland.

The administration has been so utterly inept in it's foreign policy that any suggestions from the administration should compel us to do the opposite.

Obama is talking about dialog with Iran. McCain is talking about a missile defense shield and joking about killing Iranians with cigarettes!

I think it is pretty clear. McCain seems more in-line with the Bush administration, more of the same as far as the Middle East is concerned. McCain has also expressed such disregard for the Iranian people, not differentiating between them and their leaders, as I hope other countries would differentiate between the American people and our current leaders.

We need a new paradigm in our foreign policy and that means electing Obama as the next president of this country.

We should engage diplomatically with Iran and turn down the volume of military threats.

We must find alternative energies and lessen our dependence on foreign oil, something we were warned about 30 years ago and have ignored because there was still money to be made by the petroleum industry.

The greedy are still wanting to squeeze consumers and the planet alike to keep the old paradigm afloat as evidenced by initiatives of off-shore drilling and in ANWAR and by not signing on to the Kyoto protocol. It won't hurt the environment at all, says the administration. Sure.

As for the missile defense shield, this will only serve to further enrich the military-industrial complex that President Eisenhower warned us about so long ago, will provide a false sense of security, will threaten those countries that have all ready had it up to here with us further destabilizing an incredibly destabilized part of the world.

I mention the false sense of security in the deployment of missile shields simply because such a system is easily overwhelmed with decoys that when exploded create more "targets" than can possibly be analyzed and dispositioned: is this blip of a radar reflection a missile or a decoy? If a missile, might it contain multiple warheads?

A missile defense will never be effective and will be a huge waste of taxpayer money, such as was the case with Reagan's Star Wars program.

We need to come back down to earth and deal with the world as it is, not with the ostrich-like head-in-the-desert sand approach that blinds us to everything other than a continuing search for oil.

I say we let Iran waste their money on developing what they will. Mutually-assured destruction (MAD) contained the nuclear threat once and should do so again. Effort should be made in securing the existing stockpiles of enriched uranium and preventing exports of related technologies into Iran. We should sheath our sabers.

In the meantime we should begin an information campaign to all the peoples of the Middle East explaining the dynamic of MAD and the scenario that would follow should Iran decide on a first strike. This may compel the good Iranian people to elect more moderate leaders with which we can enter into a constructive dialog.

We should be actively pursuing a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a sign of good faith to the Middle East people and governments.

A much greater threat exists in Pakistan, a country that already has nuclear weapons and a very unstable government, whose alliance and effort in the "war on terror" has been questionable at best. Here is where we should be paying attention, not on Iran and its oil.

We could better spend the money from developing and employing any missile defense shield to begin addressing much greater threats to the world such as the imminence of a world-wide flu pandemic, protecting our water and food resources as well as Pakistan's nuclear threat.

We do not have unlimited resources, unlimited military might, unlimited influence nor do we have much respect in the world to enable us to do things the same way as in the past.

Stupid is as stupid does, and it is time for a change!