[Vision2020] The Genie Is Out Of The Bottle

[Donovan Arnold]

Ted,

I did not mean Star Wars. I think that was just a rouse on behalf of Reagan 
and Bush to scare China and the Soviet Union. It was not technologically 
feasible to launch missiles from space at incoming nuclear warheads in 1985. 
Even today, that would be prohibitively expensive. It is much cheaper and 
more accurate to track them from satellites but shoot them down from Earth.

Let me address a few of your concerns and issues.

"best minds will tell you that we still do not have a workable antimissile 
system that can completely stop a massive nuclear attack from Russia"

Like I said, I am not worried about a massive nuclear attack from Russia for 
several reasons. The first being the obvious, any leaders of Russia that 
launched an attack against the United States would be signing there own 
death warrant and the death warrant of Russia. Someone so mentally ill as to 
hate the United States so much that they would willing to annihilate all of 
Russia would most likely either not be allowed to be in power, or would be 
stopped by others in Russia that wished to see Russia survive, along with 
their children, grandchildren, wife, mother etc. The same thing would apply 
to China, France, Germany, or any other country with cities, wealth, or 
stationary targets the US can hit back at if they are attacked. However, a 
group of people with no boarders, no country, no wealth, and no real future, 
would not worry about repercussions of a nuclear attack against the US. They 
have nothing to lose. The United States would not have a target to hit back. 
Even if it did succeed in killing all 2,000 members of fanatical religious 
group, so what, it still destroyed a US city with millions.

"And I assume you are referring to the EMP (electromagnetic pulse) that can 
knock out electronics when you write that we can "fry the transistors" of 
the incoming missiles?"

Yes, it is called an e-bomb (electronic). Not only is it possible to create 
them, the US already has them (I watch too much Discovery Channel). The 
trouble with them is that they do not discriminate against a device used to 
keep someone alive in a hospital and a device used to launch a missile at a 
US tank. They also do not just wipe out the enemies equipment, they wipe out 
your stuff too. The military also has cannons that can be pointed at devices 
and missiles in the air that shoot an electronic signal that confuses the 
missile. These devices are often blamed for messing up the electromagnetic 
detection of animals in the ocean, like lobsters, turtles, and whales in 
trying to navigate and thus leads to some of them being beached, or not 
making it to mating areas.

"The fact is that at this moment if everyone involved in controlling 
Russia's nuclear arsenal went MAD"

Yes, if everyone in Russia went mad, the US would take some nuclear strikes, 
not able to knock them all out of the sky in time. And if Mexico and Canada 
joined forces and attacked the United States at the same time they could 
take Arizona and New Hampshire. But to what ends? Yes, anything can happen. 
But we have to ask what is most reasonable, what is most likely to occur? 
What  threat is lurking out there that is most likely to happen? And what 
will we do about it if it does?

I would be happy if all the Nuclear Weapons under the control the Soviet 
Union were under the control of a government. The scary thing is that they 
are not, they are under the control of who knows who.

The most likely attempt to occur, in my opinion, would be a group of 
religious fanatics, terrorists, or a small poor rouge nation with nothing to 
lose that hates the US, will try to smuggle a bomb into the US and detonate 
it. I do not think that sane governments of powerful nations and a positive 
future  will be the ones to launch an attack on the US. I have little fear 
of that happening. The guy on foot that does not like you  is more likely to 
key your Porsche then the guy that does not like you driving in a Mercedes.

Sleep well,

Donovan J Arnold




>From: Tbertruss at aol.com
>To: donovanarnold at hotmail.com, vision2020 at moscow.com
>Subject: Re: [Vision2020] The Genie Is Out Of The Bottle
>Date: Mon, 21 Mar 2005 15:27:55 EST
>
>
>Donovan et. al.
>
>Donovan wrote:
>
>"I am not really worried about the nuclear bombs that can be launched at 
>the
>US. I am under the impression that we would be able to knock those out of
>the sky on the way over here unless launched from Cuba or Canada, or 
>Mexico.
>Which I think is unlikely. Although Russia does have subs it could launch
>from off the coast, I am not worried about this either. We can not only 
>fire
>anti-missile missiles and projectiles at  missiles flying to the US, but we
>can also fry the the transistors of the missiles as they pass over the 
>ocean
>not allowing them to detonate."
>
>If you are referring to the antimissile system or systems once called "Star
>Wars" during the Ronald Raygun era, or the continuation of this 
>multibillion
>dollar boondoggle during the Shrub era, the best minds will tell you that 
>we
>still do not have a workable antimissile system that can completely stop a
>massive nuclear attack from Russia, even from land based missiles inside 
>Russia.
>And I assume you are referring to the EMP (electromagnetic pulse) that can 
>knock
>out electronics when you write that we can "fry the transistors" of the
>incoming missiles?  Again, not so easy.  One way to generate an EMP strong 
>enough
>is to detonate a nuclear weapon.  This has been suggested as a way that
>satellites could be disabled in orbit, but doing this to a missile already 
>in flight
>at thousands of miles per hour presents significant problems, as you can
>imagine.
>
>The fact is that at this moment if everyone involved in controlling 
>Russia's
>nuclear arsenal went MAD ("mutually assured destruction" functions on the
>assumption that the enemy will never launch an attack because they know 
>they will
>be annihilated, but in warfare many instances of fighting to the death 
>under
>impossible odds demonstrate how irrational human beings can be), and 
>launched
>an all out nuclear strike against the USA, there would be no way to prevent
>numerous nuclear strikes at major targets in the USA.
>
>Happy dreams!
>
>Ted Moffett