I’ve got a hankering lately to have a dome. Not just for me, but for several cities and maybe even for a country or two. What I want is not like the Duomo in Florence nor the Dome of St. Peter’s. I want a dome like the Obama administration gave to Israel, like what was once considered as a possibility for South Korea.
It is well known that Obama did not get along especially well with Netanyahu. Less well known is that he was quite generous to Israel. There was the gift of $ 3.8 Billion over ten years and there was the wonderful defensive weapon of the dome.
An electronic dome sheltered Israel from incoming rockets with almost one hundred percent success. Early estimates of casualties in the 84 day war with Palestine listed thousands of Palestinians dead, and 61 Israelis. That included 57 soldiers who died in the tunnels, the three young yeshiva scholars who were killed on their way home through a dangerous neighborhood–not really during the war but before the war. (Those three deaths sparked the beginning of the war.) The last of the deaths was said to be a child who had strayed too close to the edge of the protected area. A more recent estimate said 74 Israeli died. The reason for the change is uncertain, but the more recent estimate may include deaths from injuries sustained earlier by soldiers in the tunnels. The figures are startling. Fatalities among civilians were close to zero. While Israelis took to the bomb shelters when rocket attacks began (as any of us would, just to be sure), they were actually safer than they would have been on a California highway on a Sunday afternoon. The dome was quite successful.
Where am I going with this?
Kim Jung In in North Korea has developed rocketry that is capable of hitting Japan and the western United States. If a dome could protect us, I would want our cities to be protected by a defensive weapon rather than by a war involving two continents.
If North Korea threatens a nuclear attack, my little dome plan may not be sufficient The earlier dome plan defended against conventional weapons. If Kim or anyone starts hurling nukes, then all holds are on, all hell breaks loose and my yearning for a dome is actually a yearning for the old world of conventional warfare. Can you imagine being nostalgic for a thing like that? As one commentator said, things could be “Apocalyptic.”
We must hope that both leaders, Kim in North Korea and Trump in North America know what they are doing and realize that no one is safe in an all out nuclear war. Even non-combatant countries would suffer a Nuclear Winter. It’s nothing to posture about.
Congress is considering updates of our anti-ballistic defense system. So far the system has been about 50% successful, as compared with the 100% success rate in the system given to Israel. The difference is that warheads coming from North Korea would be traveling through space, at much longer range than missiles in the Palestinian attacks on Israel. The latter were within earth’s atmosphere. We in the U.S. need a system that can destroy missiles at higher altitudes, in space.
Opponents say a better system is too expensive.
The Wall Street Journal (June 16, 2017) has wisely urged updating and integrating our system, in spite of the expense. We can do better than 50% and even if we had to settle for that rate, 50% could have a deterrent effect. The WSJ argues that congress should be able to find the money to “save Seattle from annihilation,” while still preparing troops for conventional warfare. Of course, it mentions Seattle only as an example. All of our cities are threatened, on the West Coast, the East Coast and in between. As we talk and try diplomacy, we should be assuring the safety of our cities.
We have the Aegis system, based at sea, The GMD or Ground based Missile Defense and the Thaad or Terminal High Altitude Area Defense. Of these, the GMD is at present the most powerful. Congress and the Defense Department are reviewing all three. We wish them Godspeed.
Nevertheless.blog 