One project that got a lot of press a while ago, but has recently fallen out of the spotlight, was the United States’ Ground-Based Midcourse Defense system (commonly called just “missile defense”), the system which would shoot incoming nuclear ICBM’s out of the sky using interceptor missiles launched from Alaska. The system is now partially operational, but when it was first getting on its feet it received a lot of attention.
Most notable was the resistance of other countries to the establishment of this system, specifically Russia. Seen through the prism of the media and the obvious self-bias of most Americans, myself included, it initially seemed ridiculous that they would object. After all, these missiles are purely defensive and don’t we have the right to defend ourselves?
But the truth is that this missile defense system is dangerously destabilizing because it drastically changes the rules of nuclear warfare.
The one thing that has kept the world from nuking itself into oblivion over the past 5+ decades has been the thread of “mutually assured destruction” — any country that launches nuclear weapons against its adversaries can count on a retaliation equally as devastating. Launching nuclear weapons against another country would be suicidal. Ironically as it may seem, the proliferation of nuclear weapons to more and more countries is precisely what has kept anyone from ever using them.
The GMD missile defense system is not a direct threat to other countries, but rather, it removes some of the consequences that keeps the United States from attacking them. If this system were to ever become significant enough to intercept a large number of incoming ICBMs, the United States could nuke any country on earth without fear of retaliation. The only thing that would stop this from happening is the ethics of those involved, which are questionable. We must remember that for 8 years during the previous administration the White House was filled to the brim with evangelical Christians eager to see the impending apocalypse and probably speed the process along if possible. But for decades there have been people in Washington pushing for nuclear war, such as the genius who thought it would be a good idea to nuke the China-Korea border during the Korean war to keep the Chinese from aiding the North Koreans.
I can certainly understand why other countries fear the GMD system, and not because they’re just waiting to nuke us, but because they want us to know that they have the ability to retaliate. If we’re going to maintain a nuclear arsenal and point ICBM’s at other countries, we deserve to have them pointed back at us. On the other hand, if we are to continue to develop a sophisticated anti-missile defense system, it’s only logical that it should be accompanied by an inversely proportional reduction in our own ICBM arsenal.
