National Missile Defense
Ever since nuclear weapons of mass destruction have existed, people have been attempting to create ways to prevent a war that would bring about a worldwide Arma-geddon. Many of today's top military and government officials have been studying ways in which the United States can protect itself from a nuclear missile attack. What they have come up with is the National Missile Defense program, or NMD. The NMD would consist of a network of satellites, early-warning devices, and missiles pro-grammed to spot an incoming nuclear missile. When a nuclear missile is detected, the NMD would automatically launch the computer-guided interceptor missiles to seek out and destroy the incoming nuclear missile. This program, however, should not be im-plemented or researched any further. There are a few factors to support this claim. First, the NMD program is very costly. According to the website of the Federation of American Scientists, the projected total costs by the year 2005 !will be close to $14 bil-lion dollars, obviously a large amount of money that could be well spent elsewhere. Second, the NMD program is ineffective. There are many ways for a rouge state or a terrorist group with nuclear capabilities to get around the N
"The technology and the materials are available to Hulme, Derick. "Arms Control." World Problems and Conflict (class notes, via Brian Somers) Alma College, Alma, MI. 17 November. Even the scientist Edward Teller makes a similar statement in his book, "Better a Shield than a Sword: Perspectives on Defense and Technology." He states: U.S.A. 12,720 11,080 3,800-4,250 3,500 2,000-2,500 If the US does not need this complex NMD program, then are there any alterna-tives to ensuring our national security? Most definitely, there are. For instance the US can continue to attempt a dialogue with those states that are considered to be "dangers" to national security. The US could also work to maintain it's current defense shield. Or, we could do nothing at all. However, this is probably not the best option for maintaining world peace and security. entire network of US-Russian arms agreements into shield of Star Wars." (Winkler 1999, 205-206) state, or in any manner inconsistent with the Krepon, Michael. 1999. "Missile Defense: Not Such A Bad Idea." Bulletin of Atomin Scientists. May/June 31-33. 3. Particle beams consisting of "streams of atomic or subatomic particles," which would be used to "knock out incoming targets." (Winkler 1999, 205) MD. Third, an American development of a NMD program would be a violation one of the most important inter-national nuclear weapons agreements of the nuclear age: the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM). We think that with these [anti-missile] systems, we nations that live under those free institutions, for our "If you look at world history, ever since men began
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Approximate Word count = 3813
Approximate Pages = 15 (250 words per page double spaced)
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