Mark Albrecht
Since President Donald J Trump first formally proposed a strategic defense of America in December of 2017, opponents have mounted a public campaign against it. It is a well-trod path of resistance. They first claim it “can’t possibly work.” Then, “even if it COULD work, it will be prohibitively expense and unaffordable.” Finally, “even if it could work and even if the Congress were foolish enough to pay for it, it can be easily overwhelmed, defeated and spoofed.”
How do I know this? Because this is exactly the trajectory of reasoning the opponents of the Strategic Defense Initiative adopted in the 1980s.
Many have debunked and rebutted these anti strategic defense chestnuts since the 1980s, but the Gold Standard of why Strategic Defenses make sense and should be developed and deployed and why the chain of criticism doesn’t hold water still stands. It is an article in Commentary Magazine from 1985 by noted physicist Professor Robert Jastrow entitled, “Ronald Reagan Versus the Scientists.” At that time SDI opponents included scientific notables like Carl Sagan and Richard Garwin, and members of congress like Les Aspin, John Kerrry and Al Gore. Today opponents largely come from researchers at think tanks. It is time to revive Bob Jastrow’s dominating analysis, it doesn’t need much updating as the arguments against are always the same.
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