On Thu, 14 Jun 2001, Julia Thompson wrote:
> I'm guessing, John, that you haven't read much Tom Clancy. If you'd read
> _The Sum of All Fears_ you might take the threat of smuggling a weapon in
> a little more seriously. (The whole scenario outlined in that book scared
> the s*** out of me.)
>
> And I think you'd probably like some of Clancy's work, actually. I
> wouldn't recommend him to everybody here, but I'd recommend him to *you*.
>
> Julia
I'd second the Clancy recommendation, of course. There is an old joke in
the Pentagon about nuclear weapons smuggling into the United States. They
say that the easiest way to get a nuclear weapon into the US is to wrap it
in cocaine. :-)
This, of course, does not actually nullify the argument for missile
defense. We have ways of defending against that approach. They may or
may not be effective, but we can at least try. We _don't_ have ways of
defending against a ballistic missile attack, at least at the moment.
I should add that I'm an agnostic on the subject. I don't _think_ the
technology is ready yet. On the other hand, I don't think it's
theoretically impossible either, it's just not ready. i do think it would
probably be a good idea if the technology were ready. The objections of
various European countries are not, to my mind, all that serious an issue.
It is factually untrue that all of Europe
is opposed. The Czech Republic, Spain, Hungary, and several other
European countries have stated their support. In fact, every center-right
government in Europe is supportive of building a missile defense system,
so far as I am aware. Once Berlusconi takes power in Italy, I would
expect him to support it as well. Even Hugo Young in the Guardian has
come out and said that the american arguments on NMD have been quite
effective. So large parts of the European left oppose it. So what? The
only way the US could make most of the European left happy is if it
committed national suicide, so I'm really not so sure that we should allow
our policies to be constrained by what gains Le Monde's approval.
Gautam
