the bigdumbHoosier Archive - 01.30.2001
Share the D
Ever since nuclear warheads were first loaded into long-range ballistic missiles in the 1950s, governments have been looking for a shield from these frightening weapons. Ground based "anti-ballistic missiles" (ABMs) have been the typical plan, but space based lasers and other more exotic systems have been talked about and tested as well.
From the Pax-Americana of the late 1940s, through the "duck and cover" days of the 1950s cold war, and into the "kiss your ass goodbye" philosophy of the 1980s nothing much happened. Years passed, the nuclear arsenals got older, the Berlin Wall came tumbling down, and the Russians didn't seem eight feet tall anymore. The big players mostly participated in an ABM treaty that discouraged deployment of defensive systems, and after the Cuban Missile Crisis in the early 1960s we mostly stayed away from the brink of global annihilation. The American and Russian space programs, once fiercely adversarial, and often militaristically so now cooperate on a manned space station.
Now missile defense is back, and it seems closer to reality than ever. Proponents of deploying a missile defense system argue that small "rogue" nations, terrorists and possibly criminal organizations could get possession of and perhaps launch a nuclear missile attack on the U.S. or an ally. There's little doubt that's true, and it would be nice to think that we could do something to protect ourselves.
Opponents of a new missile defense say it will be terribly expensive, unreliable, will violate treaty obligations and will be destabilizing. That last one is the real kicker. The U.S. has been involved in numerous military actions in recent years, especially since the decline of the communist block. The rest of the world may have grown just a bit weary of the "American Century" and we risk facing growing opposition to our use of power on a global scale. Another major power, say China, or an amalgamation of former Soviet states might feel pressured to act before deployment was completed.
Given all of these facts, I say it's time to "Share the D". That is, I think the major nations of the world should deploy missile defense in a cooperative venture. Russia, the U.S. and China would be a minimum contingent, but hopefully most of the developed nations would join in this project. The purpose would be to create an international system to protect against terrorist, rogue nation and criminal attacks with nuclear weapons. All the nations would share the same system, the same technology, and all would share in the costs of deploying the system. The system would be designed to be useful against meteors and comet impacts as well as an accidental or unauthorized launch from one of the member nations.
Scary? Sound like a "New World Order"? Think of it this way - the age of nuclear madness can end one of two ways: (1) through international cooperation moving to eventual nuclear disarmament, (2) the end of civilization. Hmmmm, I'll pick #1 please.
