Originally posted by: eskimospy
Originally posted by: Queasy
Originally posted by: Descartes
Link to where Obama says this specific anti-missile defense system is unproven?
I don't understand why so many people take such a hard stance on what politicians say, and that goes for McCain, Obama, Clinton or whoever. Obviously, if this evidence shows a successful test, then it's clearly not unproven. Unless you can show that he still says he'd scrap it despite successful tests, then I see no issue here.
Well, which missile defense system does he mean then?
The Aegis system? Successful in tests so far.
The THAAD system? As mentioned above, it is currently in service
The Patriot system? Track record of success
I don't know of any missile defense systems beyond these. And note, he doesn't say "system". He says "system
s".
He nearly certainly meant NMD systems as those are the ones that are 'unproven'. I'm guessing you don't know a lot about NMD systems, I've actually written several papers on them and discussed them at length in other threads on here.
In short: Obama is 100% right. (assuming he's talking about national level missile defense)
As I've mentioned before, an effective NMD system simply isn't possible using the technology we are attempting to use. Terminal phase intercept is great for theater level BMD because you only have to protect a relatively small area from attack. Defending our nation using terminal phase interceptors is simply impossible. It would cost so much that we would probably be better off letting someone nuke a city (in terms of dollars at least).
The actual problem that our NMD system needs to overcome is the mid course guidance decoy issue, one that we are completely incapable of solving. Simply put a nation that wants to launch a ballistic missile at us can very cheaply make a large amount of decoy warheads that we will have no choice but to intercept as well, making it very easy (and cheap) to overwhelm whatever system we would put in place.
On top of all this, as I've mentioned many times before, this isn't even the likely avenue of attack. We're spending truckloads of cash on something that isn't even the primary threat. Any intelligent leader would prioritize the actual areas where we are likely to be attacked with these warheads (through borders, shipping, etc.) as opposed to this technology.
Thank god Obama is willing to trash this piece of crap. Another excellent reason to vote for him.