In 1983, Ronald Reagan proposed what he called Strategic Defense Initiative and his opponent called it star wars with disdain. One United States Senator spoke at the National Press club in 1986, “Star Wars represents a fundamental assault on the concepts, alliances and arms-control agreements that have buttressed American security for several decades, and the president’s continued adherence to it constitutes one of the most reckless and irresponsible acts in the history of modern statecraft.” This past weekend, this Senator found himself working with Israel to knock down those missiles. Yes, Joe Biden should be thankful to Ronald Reagan for his foresight.
The goal was to defend America against ballistic missiles. In 1988, I ran a congressional campaign in Missouri 5th district and my candidate, Mary Ellen Lobb, reviewed data on SDI and as we talked about the concept and how to use it in the election. We wrote up a position paper and she insisted that we must include regional powers about Iran. Ms. Lobb was prophetic about the importance of SDI, and it use against Iran. This was 1988.
Israel realized the importance of missile defense and within two years of Reagan announcement, Israel began working with the United States and this past weekend, the world watched in real time how SDI worked in protecting Israel population. While United States didn’t develop a space-based system, the technology has put together an arsenal of ground, air, and sea basked interceptors and Israel developed an iron dome to protect the population from short range missile along with David’s sling protection includes medium range missiles and the Arrow 2 and 3 hit missiles at high attitudes.
Now that we have a spaced based force, it should be obvious that a space-based system will protect American population from missiles but maybe also protects our satellites as well.
Maybe it is time to review the Reagan years for on many issues, Reagan was ahead of the game and SDI was one area. He understood that keeping a world on the edge of mutual destruction was not the long-term strategy, but SDI allowed something different, a defense against missiles.
Israel has showed the ability to protect their population and shown how SDI does have a role in future of the warfare.
The Donelson Files 