National Missile Defense essays

National Missile Defense essays This article was very interesting, Im glad I picked it, because I was never even aware of the NMD and the topics that surround it. I remember hearing about the so called Star Wars defense system of the 1980s, but I never gave the topic a second thought. This article addresses how the system would operate, what it would cost and how it would affect our relationships with other countries, especially China and Russia. The NMD is a system that could be used to stop incoming ICBMs and other forms of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). The idea has been tossed around within congress and between other government agencies; however, it is being looked at very seriously now. With the threat of rogue states acquiring WMD rising everyday the government has to consider the NMD as a necessary tool in homeland security. The Bush administration is very supportive of the NMD. However, it does have its problems. It will be a very expensive program to build, costing around 60 million dollars. Also it will not be operational for a few years. It is also difficult to know how effective it will be. The favored design of the NMD is the hit to kill missile, it is designed to smash into the incoming ICBM and destroy it. So far, the US has not been able to guarantee it will have a high success rate. The only way to truly see its effectiveness is to test it and it is very hard to simulate an ICBM attack. The idea of a NMD is also very controversial on the political table. Russia and China have already voiced their disapproval of the NMD. They say that it will cause the US to have to much leverage if nuclear war were to break out. The US is already the supreme super power in the military world. China and Russia feel that with our nuclear capabilities and the NMD the US would be too far advanced. The US is trying to be sensitive to other countries around the world because we do not want to disrupt r...