Word: sdi
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...United States shows signs once again of pursuing a sensible route to world peace, Bush blew a big chance to back up his rhetoric of a New World Order. Now more than ever, the reasons for the development and deployment of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) are negligible...
Proponents of SDI now point to the "rapidly proliferating" Third World as a source of instability. Currently, 14 developing countries have short-range ballistic missiles; the Bush administration claims that the number might rise to 24 within a decade...
Bush's scenario depends, of course, on the offending nation being able to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles, aiming technology, and nuclear weapons--and then getting all of them to work. Even then, SDI could be easily thwarted. "Brilliant pebbles" might be able to bring down Soviet strategic missiles flying against the dark of space, but would have trouble tracking a low-flying missile against a warm, crowded earth--the very weapons Third World countries would use. The development of SDI technology also requires a computer the size of a cigarette pack, but with the power of a Cray supercomputer. Supposedly...
Other proposed missile technology defenses would be far too costly to install in every city of every state--and there's no guarantee that missile technology will work. The example of the Patriot missile merely diverting a Scud into a U.S. Army base underlines the irrationality of SDI. Most nuclear missiles discharge their war-heads (and decoys) long before entering the range of ground-based missiles, making defense systems impotent in a low-altitude nuclear confrontations...
However, no one was willing to accept the Peace Prize for Edward Teller, father of the hydrogen bomb and SDI supporter. The band played the theme from "Star Wars" instead...