Mr. Hanson,<\/p>\n
I read your opinion piece in Newsweek and wanted to respond.<\/p>\n
I wish you\u2019d included numbers, information on programs and systems, budget levels, and other trends, rather than just a few quotes. Funding within the DoD always fluctuates, given whatever is the shiny new toy of the moment (it was drones for a few years, for instance), but missile defense has always gotten plenty of money.<\/p>\n
While there were plenty of detractors, missile defense was still given more priority than a lot of other programs before the never-ending war on terror began in the early 2000s. That\u2019s when the DoD\u2019s focus and funding shifted to aviation (drones, helicopters, etc.), ground vehicles, networks, and other systems that needed improvements, innovation, maintenance, etc.\u2014because those are the capabilities needed for the current conflicts. One could say that\u2019s shortsighted, but the U.S. got here by getting into a war with no predefined strategy or exit criteria (very shortsighted), so we all have to play the hand we\u2019re dealt.<\/p>\n
There is simply not enough money to go around. It\u2019s not because of Congressional budget levels (and I\u2019m not sure I understand the finger-pointing at \u201cliberals,\u201d given that Republicans have controlled fiscal spending for at least half of the past 30+ years). It\u2019s because there is literally not enough money in America\u2019s coffers to pay for the kind of military expenditure the country seems to expect. Wars are expensive, and long wars are basically black holes sucking in all resources that get anywhere close.<\/p>\n
Building and testing missile defense systems is, likewise, extremely expensive. Defense contractors charge the Government ungodly amounts of money for systems that repeatedly fail to work as promised. And yes, that\u2019s a systemic problem that needs to be addressed, but reining in free-market capitalism in the military-industrial complex takes a lot of time and requires political backing to put regulations in place. Contractors don\u2019t like to have their hands tied, and they have well-paid lobbyists, so…we know how this story ends.<\/p>\n
Also, to be fair, it is unbelievably freaking hard to develop a missile interceptor, especially one that\u2019s effective in the midcourse phase. There\u2019s a reason why we have the lower tier (PATRIOT) and upper tier (THAAD) fairly well covered with proven missile defense, but not midcourse yet. And those systems that work take years, if not decades, of development and testing to reach full operational capability. PATRIOT, which of course made its battleground debut in Desert Storm, was being developed under the program name SAM-D in the late 1960s.<\/p>\n
Plus, I feel like people operate under the delusion that, even if we did have a fully operational midcourse missile defense system, it would be 100% effective. An intercept rate of about 70% or more is considered really successful. This is, in fact, rocket science. Actually, it\u2019s more difficult than your everyday rocket science.<\/p>\n
There are a lot of factors at play when it comes to this issue. I think it\u2019s unfair, incorrect, and misleading to say or imply that past administrations, Congresses, and the DoD have somehow ignored missile defense, and that the reason we don\u2019t currently have a reliable \u201cmissile shield\u201d is because no one cared enough to fund it.<\/p>\n
Respectfully,<\/p>\n
Whitney Hedges<\/p>\n
________________________________<\/p>\n
Dear Angry Reader Whitney Hedges,<\/p>\n
All of what you say\u2014missile defense is expensive, often without surety of hitting the target, and embedded in opportunistic politics\u2014has elements of truth. But in comparison to what?<\/p>\n
For a variety of avoidable decisions, we are now on the eve of a North Korean nuclear-tipped missile capability of reaching the West Coast. I simply quoted in my essay past statements, whether Walter Mondale\u2019s dismissal of missile defense as a \u201choax,\u201d or Clinton Defense Secretary Perry\u2019s belief that it was not necessary to provide missile defense against a someday nuclear North Korea, or Barack Obama\u2019s hot mic promise to Russian President Medvedev to be \u201cflexible\u201d on Eastern European missile defense agendas (cancelled by Obama)\u2014if Putin would give him \u201cspace\u201d during his reelection efforts in 2012.<\/p>\n
Is your argument that those quotations are wrong? Or that Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush likewise had no interest in pursuing missile defense?<\/p>\n
Note that in my piece I did not suggest missile defense was ever a sure thing. But when faced with North Korea, and the specter of losing a U.S. city, all sorts of things that in the past were considered \u201cproblematic\u201d become preferable to the alternatives.<\/p>\n
A costly system that offers only a 60% likelihood of knocking down an incoming nuclear missile is preferable to nothing, and I confess also preferable to spending commensurate funds on further entitlements, which will be unnecessary if we are hit by enemy nuclear missiles.<\/p>\n
Respectfully,<\/p>\n
Victor Hanson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
From An Angry Reader: Mr. Hanson, I read your opinion piece in Newsweek and wanted to respond. I wish you\u2019d included numbers, information on programs and systems, budget levels, and other trends, rather than just a few quotes. Funding within the DoD always fluctuates, given whatever is the shiny new toy of the moment (it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[6,1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-2LR","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9679,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/9679-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":10655,"position":0},"title":"From An Angry Reader: Victor\u2026","author":"Megan Ring","date":"December 19, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"From An Angry Reader: Victor \u00a0Your gloating and myopic column pillorying President Obama's foreign policy legacy was simple minded and juvenile. Why write something so stupidly one sided????? \u00a0When Obama came into office we were losing 100 service people per month in a stupid war and as he leaves office,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Angry Reader"","block_context":{"text":"Angry Reader","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/angry-reader\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12129,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/angry-reader-01-08-2020\/","url_meta":{"origin":10655,"position":1},"title":"Angry Reader 01-08-2020","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 8, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"From An Angry Reader: You are doing the same thing you claim Maddow is doing. Aren\u2019t you an elite grouper, just on the other side of Maddow? You left out many facts in your article. You need to look in the mirror. You are old enough to know better. America\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10470,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/10470-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":10655,"position":2},"title":"From An Angry Reader: To:\u2026","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 10, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"From An Angry Reader: To: Prof. Victor Davis Hanson \u00a0 At the end of your interview with Scott Simon on 8 July 2017 I heard this: \u201cAnd look how they took a good man like George Bush and turned him into a monster\u201d. It caught my attention. \u00a0 One of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Angry Reader"","block_context":{"text":"Angry Reader","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/angry-reader\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10571,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/10571-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":10655,"position":3},"title":"09\/13\/17 From An Angry Reader:\u2026","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 13, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"09\/13\/17 From An Angry Reader: Angry Reader Rich Laughlin \u00a0 Mr. Hanson, please try using sentences with less words. Most recently, I read one of your articles that had a sentence with 44 words. Other sentences in the same article were almost as bad. Really. You are loosing me with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Angry Reader"","block_context":{"text":"Angry Reader","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/angry-reader\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":144,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/angry-reader-5\/","url_meta":{"origin":10655,"position":4},"title":"Angry Reader #5","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 9, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Private Papers Angry Reader #5 wrote: Don't mean to troll here, but for the nth time, what is it about Obama or his agenda that wasn't conservative mainstream thought even a few years ago?? He's lowered taxes, been tough on defense, adopted a healthcare plan proposed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Angry Reader"","block_context":{"text":"Angry Reader","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/angry-reader\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11622,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/angry-reader-01-23-19\/","url_meta":{"origin":10655,"position":5},"title":"Angry Reader 01-23-19","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 23, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"From An Angry Reader: Re: IMPEACH TRUMP Dear Sir: I just read your article in the opinion section of the Albuq. Journal today. I guess I want to ask you if you approve of the President of our Country, the role model for our children, going out there every day\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10655"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10655"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10656,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10655\/revisions\/10656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}