Close the Missile Defense Gap Now
Modern missile technology, in the hands of terror states and their proxies, threatens.
The next level of national security advocacy has therefore arrived as well.
It is the public campaign for funding and deployment of missile defense systems against rogue states and terror groups who are not deterrable by the threat of counterstrike or mutually assured destruction.
The enemies of the West have concluded that 20th century tactics have not worked to defeat or destroy the Jewish state.
Over decades, through fortitude, technology, and the alliance with the United States, Israel has withstood Arab manpower force advantages; coordinated multi-front enemy attacks; Russian and petrodollar funding; and the fervor of jihadist boycott, pedagogy, propaganda, and suicide/homicide bombers.
The 21st century reveals that Israel’s declared ideological and regional enemies have shifted military strategies and are now procuring increasingly dangerous missiles — delivery systems that carry chemical, biological, and, soon, nuclear warheads.
From short-range Hamas mortars and rockets in Gaza that disrupt and harm civilian life, to the longer-range missiles held by Hezbollah, Syria, and Iran that span the range of Israel’s geographical and defense bases, Israel is surrounded by the largest missile fleet in the world.
Unfortunately, there is yet another existential threat level. EMP (electromagnetic pulse) is a nuclear weapon that does not land on, but explodes over a country like Israel (actually over the eastern Mediterranean due to the earth’s curvature), causing immediate destruction of all electronics. Think just three days of food and water coupled with societal panic and the end of contemporary civilization.
Israeli Air Force pilots, courageous paratroopers, patriotic reservists, and even well-built security fences can’t halt incoming missiles. Missiles can fly 24/7 and in any weather. They arrive at lightning speed — in seconds or minutes. They are easy to purchase, prepare, and deliver at the push of a button. They disrupt commerce and the call-up of reservists in times of crisis. And launchers can hide among civilians, giving the enemy cover and fueling the argument that retaliation is disproportionate.
Israel’s last two wars were defensive responses to untargeted terrorist rockets from Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and Hamas in northern Gaza. These terror groups have continued to produce and import increasingly lethal and longer-range weapons stockpiles. Israel’s dilemma wasn’t whether its response was disproportionate, but if it was effective in deterring or defeating committed enemies.
Put more broadly, can Western democracies, including the United States, preempt or defend attacks before a crisis develops, rather than merely planning and preparing to retaliate while meekly surviving post-disaster as a destroyed nation?
Israel has one missile defense system it can deploy — the Arrow II interceptors — designed to hit Iranian-launched Shahab missiles. Unfortunately, the U.S. government has apparently decided not to fund further production, leaving Israel potentially vulnerable to mass attack. The Israeli Missile Defense Association argues that Israel must organize a range of multilayered defenses to intercept both short-range rockets using lasers and longer-range missiles. Boost phase technology would enable Israel to hit an enemy missile in her own territory, limiting risk and potentially aiding deterrence.
Good luck!
The left has been claiming missile defense won’t work for so long that it has becomes a cornerstone of Socialist dogma.
NOTHING will change their minds. NOTHING!
If Socialists start examining their dogma, the dialectic will lead to the collapse of Socialism. Socialism has become a religion over the centuries. You would have better luck persuading a Christian that Christ wasn’t crucified then a socialist that Missile defense works. If you try to show them, they close their eyes. Try to tell them, they close their ears.
Sadly, Obama Chamberlain’s Democrats and his many liberal Jewish supporters (80 percent, right?) will have to learn the hard way. It sucks. I know. But political correctness comes before a fall. They were warned.
There’s a certain irony in the fact that Isreal and the US had developed an anti-missile laser system, the Nautilus, that could shoot down “Katyushas, Qassams, and bombs with 100 percent success”[see next link], and canceled it for environmental and cost reasons. Now the locals are demanding its immediate reinstatement and deployment.
see also
Spacewar.com and
ISN
Paging Sean Hannity. Ready to go here. Ready for a little bravery in action. No harm will come to you, as you know. Paging Sean Hannity. You;’re commitment to be waterboarded for charity was a noble utterance. Paging Sean Hannity. follow-through is everything, as you know. Mister Hannity. Paging Mister Hannity. Not that scary, after all Christopher Hitchens did it. Then again, he obviously has a bigger pair than you. Paging Sean Hannity. You run the risk of painting the entire conservative movement as a bunch of cowardly gas bags. You really should respond. Paging Sean Hannity.
Just to add to what typos_r_us said, the Left/Democrats have always been dead-set against missile defense. Why is that? My theory is it’s only because Reagan initiated it and the right supports it; therefore the left must be against it. National security? Not a factor. The Left’s arguments against missile defense are lame but their relentless propaganda, carried by the mainstream media and academia, has, as always, been effective. Many Americans have been misled into believing that it can not work.
I wonder how American Jews, who always vote Democrat, will feel if and when Israel gets taken out by a ballistic missile carried WMD?
How long after that until it’s our turn?
Not having a missile defense is a typical leftist head-in-the-sand approach to human threats. They want us to sacrifice our whole economy on the speculative threat of Climate Change, but are unwilling to spent a pittance (compared to Obama’s spending increases) on defending ourselves from potentially undeterrable, unstable regimes (Iran, NK). A single conventional nuke (with NK’s capabilities and soon to be within Iran’s), launched as an EMP attack, would be as destructive to the US as a fifty nuclear weapons impacting in our cities. The orbiting Iranian satellite could just as easily have been an orbiting Iranian EMP nuke, just waiting for some nutjob to push the button as it flies over the heart of our country.
If there is a threat being posed on the world, its not coming from Iran nor other such countries, but rather whoever is controlling the governments of Great Britain, The US and Is-Ra-El.
These are the real threat to the people, the corporates who are robbing resources in order to sell back with excessive usury.
Saddam was hung because he refused to take dollars for oil, nor would he allow the corporates to incorporate Iraqi oil fields, and the good people of Iran are now under the same pressure to give up their oil to the Corporatocracy.
And soon all those who refuse to bow down to the Corporatocracy “Anti-Christ” will be detained and their earth-suits taken to FEMA camps to be disposed of.
However, there is a much deeper agenda. One most people do not even wish to consider. However, I have found much evidence that suggests Anti-Christ is doing its duty in service to The Author of life.
Examine the evidence for yourself on my “Ancient Wisdom” page, for one can not see into his future, without knowing his past.
There’s no need to worry. Obama’s lack of expertise is an asset for him. He’s making friends with the
terrorists and alienating allies
.
Besides,
the missiles can’t even reach as far as Denver!
… So only the East Cost of the US is threatened.
DoubleTapper
DoubleTapper@gmail.com
DoubleTapper, blogging on Guns Politics Defense from Israel
Obama has figured out a new way to deal with the threat to Israel. Turn his back on it. The middle east is rapidly destabilizing, now that his terrorist allies that he hobknobs with have figured out how weak he is.
Obama’s religion of pacifism is no less a danger to western civilization than the threat of our enemies exploding missiles over our collective heads. While Obama and his hard left funders (think Geoge Soros)wax poetic about what IS and what IS NOT torture, our enemies are planning our ultimate torture-death by the millions.
Therefore, for those who care about western survival-whence the Saturday people go, so too do the Sunday people-putting Obama’s feet to the fire is a moral and manifestly urgent imperative.
Withholding taxes is a good place to start.
I am the editor of an Indian defence newspaper and as you know the Indians have been buying Israeli technologies recently.
I do not know how you can talk about Morals after all the war crimes Israel commits on the Palestinians. The only justification for the recent calls for expansion of settlements in West bank are fundamentalist religious and hence I compare the Israelis to the fundamentalist Muslims, as equally brutal, regressive and repressive. In time, both Israel and its U.S. backers will be charged for war crimes.
Considering that the likely targets for North Korean, and Iranian missiles are blue cities, why would,anyone want to strengthen our missile defenses?Let the voters live(or die ) with the consequences of their choices.
Hey editor Manu, it is “defense”, not “defence”.
“In time, both Israel and its U.S. backers will be charged for war crimes.”
The Sun will enter it’s red giant phase before that happens. Remember, only the loser gets charged with war crimes, and there is no possible combination of nations that can defeat the USA in a military conflict.
“Hey editor Manu, it is “defense”, not “defence”.”
Hey Rockford – Real English – defense.
“The Sun will enter it’s red giant phase before that happens. Remember, only the loser gets charged with war crimes, and there is no possible combination of nations that can defeat the USA in a military conflict.”
You forget the “One”.
Love your article though it does make me crazy! So sick of the Obamateur Hour in the White House. While our president is making friends with tinpot dictators and making overtures to the Muslim world, making the US look weaker than it did under Carter, the left (American Jews included) looks the other way and focuses on savaging anyone who disagrees with The One. May heaven help us all.