Why?
Because while liberals in the west (including Great Britain) protested against the futuristic weapon system, he continued the program...albeit in bits and pieces but continued it he did.
What did they say about it at the time? Via Wikipedia.
Senator Ted Kennedy describing the proposal as "reckless Star Wars schemes."[64] Some critics used that term derisively, implying it was an impractical science fiction fantasy. In addition, the American media's liberal use of the moniker (despite President Reagan's request that they use the program's official name) did much to damage the program's credibility.[65]So where are we today?
We have Israel being able to keep its military from ripping apart the Palestinians because they're able to shoot down incoming missiles.
We have Japan and S. Korea being able to respond calmly to N. Korean provocations. We have a system to protect Western Europe and our own homeland.
Star Wars was futuristic. It was visionary. And it can be credited with preventing at least two or three wars.
Reagan was Right.
theres a big difference between theatre ballistic missiles and the teh ICBM defenses reagan wanted. the system they are wanting for ICBMs has failed half its tests and is unreliable at best, while the arrow system along with BMD systems on the AEGIS system and THAAD system is much better, but they are not capable of hitting ICBMs. also you dont deploy a weapon that cant fight, Bush started building missile sites in alaska before the system even works, better to implement systems like THAAD that work now and continue to develop ICBM defenses and deploy them when ready.
ReplyDeletewrong Joe. it was a whole system. it wasn't just reserved for ICBM's. additionally the work that started with Star Wars birthed everything you're talking about.
Deleteyou have a right to your opinion, not to your facts.
And don't forget, even the Russians are now calling for a truly GLOBAL defense system to blast incoming celestial objects. It's rather mind boggling to think about where we'd be today if Gorbachev had agreed to a combined missile defense system when Reagan offered back in the day.
ReplyDeleteAnti-asteroid defence system -- basically its ICBM's modified to leave earth orbit and hit incoming asteroid to vaporise/split/shift its trajectory.
ReplyDeleteSpace based counter ICBM system -- basically is the means to drop heavy object from orbit to a starting missile before it could reach orbit and deploy miriads of decoys, chaffs, radar jammers, making its almost impossible to intercept.
"The operational deployment of the R36M/SS-18 consisted of the R-36MUTTH, which carried ten 500 kt warheads, and its follow-on, the R-36M2 (15A18M), which carried ten 800 kt warheads (single-warhead versions with either 8.3 Mt or 20 Mt warhead also existed at some point). To partially circumvent the treaty, the missile was equipped with 40 heavy decoys to utilize the capacity left unused due to the 10-warhead limitation.[6] These decoys would appear as warheads to any defensive system, making each missile as hard to intercept as 50 single warheads, rendering potential anti-ballistic defense ineffective." -- wiki
And this monsters still on duty.