Missile defense

Peter Huessy:

Missile defenses are again in the news. Our critics are complaining that we need to use the "fairness doctrine" in determining whether national missile defenses should be deployed and whether they will work. In tests so far, the interceptor rockets and kill vehicles have successfully smashed into a dummy warhead five times.
In recent congressional testimony, our missile defense officials said the system needs more testing to ensure that it becomes realistic to expect the system to work repeatedly over time. Fair enough. This is not inconsistent with other comments by our missile-defense officials that in an emergency, our interceptors now deployed in Alaska could be used to shoot down a rocket launched, say, from North Korea.
But to our critics, this has to be challenged. Since the tests have not been 100 percent successful, critics therefore claim even an operational system won't always work and therefore in a one-on-one engagement, success is uncertain. In short, a new version of the fairness doctrine has emerged in the media and on Capitol Hill as the basis for judging missile defenses. The system is judged entirely on the fanciful idea that if North Korea launched a rocket at the United States, we would be limited to launching in response only one interceptor.

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