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Does Israel’s Iron Dome Success Mean Ronald Reagan’s ‘Star Wars’ Push Was Right All Along?

Nov. 20, 2012 9:00am Sharona Schwartz

Does Iron Dome Success in Israel Mean Ronald Reagan Star Wars Was Right All Along

Iron Dome battery in action (photo credit: IDF)

After he proposed the Strategic Defense Initiative in 1983, President Ronald Reagan was widely derided by his critics for launching what they believed to be an unrealistic initiative, based more in wishful thinking than in hard science. But the achievements being racked up this week by Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system is reminding some observers of Reagan’s prescience.

Max Boot writes in Commentary Magazine (emphasis added):

The latest Gaza war is only a few days old, but already one conclusion can be drawn: missile defense works. This is only the latest vindication for the vision of Ronald Reagan who is emerging as a consensus pick for one of the all-time great U.S. presidents.

For it was Ronald Reagan who made missile defense a major priority for the U.S. and our allies. His 1983 speech on the subject was widely derided as “Star Wars” because he envisioned that some missile would be intercepted in space. For years critics claimed that it was impossible to intercept missiles in flight, or that at the very least it would be prohibitively expensive to do so. But now the U.S. West Coast is actually protected by a limited ballistic-missile defense system based primarily around satellites, sea-based Aegis and X-band radars, and Standard Missile-3 interceptors. We don’t know how the system would work in combat but it has been vindicated in testing.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak says that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is achieving an “exceptional” 90% success rate in shooting down projectiles flying toward the cities where the Iron Dome batteries are deployed. On a visit to one installation this week, U.S. Ambassador Dan Shapiro said the American government will provide Israel with $300 million to help keep the Iron Dome operating.

The Wall Street Journal in an editorial also suggests Reagan’s idea has been vindicated (emphasis added):

Israeli interceptors have eviscerated the Iranian-supplied Hamas missiles heading for population centers. Chalk up an important strategic and technological win for missile defense.

The Jewish state’s Iron Dome system was conceived after the 2006 war with Lebanon, when nearly 4,000 Hezbollah missiles killed 44 civilians in northern Israel; it was deployed only last year. Missile defenses have had vocal doubters since Ronald Reagan championed them in the 1980s, and Israeli critics focused on the price—around $50,000 for each Tamir interceptor—and supposedly dubious reliability. The last week ends that debate.

The IDF reports that “600+ rockets were fired” from Gaza in the last week alone. Calling missile defenses “more urgent than ever,” the Wall Street Journal writes that the U.S. administration needs to heed the important lessons from Israel’s experience facing “rogue missiles” (emphasis added):

There’s a lesson here as well for the U.S. In an overlooked study in September, the National Research Council pointed out shortcomings in current American missile-defense strategy, saying the U.S. needs to do more to protect the homeland against long-range attacks from Iran, North Korea and other countries. The report specifically recommended an additional defense site on the U.S. East Coast to augment interceptors in California and Alaska.

Three years ago, the Obama Administration pulled the plug on a site in Poland and the Czech Republic, bending to Russian pressure. In its place, the White House decided to protect Europe from a short- and medium-range Iranian missile with Aegis interceptors initially based at sea and later on land.

The revised plan’s last, fourth stage would eventually address the long-range threat by putting interceptors in Central Europe. But that’s the issue that President Obama famously promised Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev that he’d have “more flexibility” on in a second term. Missile defense could also suffer from budget cuts.

Presently, Israel has five Iron Dome batteries deployed. It says it needs 13 to protect the entire country. As for President Reagan, Max Boot writes: “Somewhere, wherever he is now, the Gipper must be smiling.”

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Comments (59)

camberiu
Posted on November 21, 2012 at 6:42am
This is one of the most disingenuous articles I’ve read in a while. How can someone compare a system that intercepts a small number of short range, low altitude, low speed, unguided rockets, with a system that is expected to intercept hundreds of SS-18 Satan ICBMs launched on a single wave. Does the author even begins to comprehend what a SS-18 Satan is and what it was capable of? The gap between a Hamas rocket and a SS-18 is like the gap between a slingshot and a Hellfire anti-tank missile.
We have the technical capabilities NOW to intercept the primitive Hamas rockets, but 30 years ago, the technology simply was not there. Today, we don’t have the capability to intercept a SS-18 Satan, never mind the even more modern and capable Topol-M.
Iron Dome validates nothing about SDI. Two completely different scenarios and levels of technological threats.

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eramthgin
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 3:28pm
A question that answers itself. But let it be know that Obama the socialist/muslim has throughly gutted our missle defense system research.

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HELPUSSAVEAMERICA
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:30pm
Yes, Ronald Reagan was right about star wars(and almost everything else too). The US should have had that protection, there is one reason why we don’t, and that reason is Democrat Bill Clinton. Someday, maybe soon, the dumb sheeple will realize that the Dems have dismantled America the Beautiful, as they realize they’ve lost their freedom and prosperity.

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thx1138v2
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:22pm
Missile defense is good but expensive, as shown by the Iron Dome system. The expense, however, was Reagan’s key. While the U.S. could afford to develop the Star Wars program, the USSR could not afford to develop their own at that tiime so the impact was more an economic advantage than a military advantage. By forcing them to invest in something they couldn’t afford at the time was the equivalent of raising in a table stakes poker game where the opponent can’t meet the raise. For that reason Star Wars never had to actually work. The threat was sufficient.

What that highlights more than anything else is that a strong economy is the backbone of national security. And what is Obama destroying as fast as possible? The U.S. economy.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/sns-pod-1934-cartoon-pic,0,7114709.photo

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- sillyfreshness
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:29pm
  The “chosen people” controlled media is launching a war on Gentile’s minds all to try to gain their loyalty.
  
  http://www.prisonplanet.com/puppet-state-america.html
  
  Report this comment
- camberiu
  Posted on November 21, 2012 at 7:13am
  This is not a valid comparison. Iron Dome, as expensive as it is, can only intercept short range, slow, low altitude, unguided rockets with a very predictable trajectories fired sporadically from Gaza. SDI had the mission to intercept Soviet SS-18 Satan ICBMs. The SS-18 flies at 5 miles per second and each missile carries 10 independent nuclear warheads 40 decoys. Once deployed, the independent warheads and decoys are able to randomly change trajectories in mid flight, which means that they could literally “faint” going one way while actually aiming to go another way. In the 1980s, when SDI was being built, the USSR had 120 SS-18s deployed. Their strategic doctrine was to fire ALL OF THEM in a single salvo, in case of a nuclear war. This means that SDI would have to intercept 6000 simultaneous targets (warheads and decoys) flying at 5 miles per second and randomly altering course in mid-flight. The cost of doing this today is astronomical, unimaginable. 30 years ago it was way beyond science fiction.
  
  Report this comment
KernelOfTruth
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 1:27pm
“But that’s the issue that President Obama famously promised Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev that he’d have ‘more flexibility’ on in a second term.”

If that doesn’t expose Obama as the anti-Reagan, what will?

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JACKTHETOAD
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 12:38pm
Where’s Joan Baez when you really heed her? Now, she could sing ‘Kenyan Tree-Climbing Man.’

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thegreatcarnac
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 12:16pm
Reagan was right about a lot of things. Israel has proved that missile defense works. They keep improving it year by year and one of these days….all hamas missiles will be knocked down in the air.

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- muffythetuffy
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 1:09pm
  SELL THOSE ISREALI WAR BONDS
  
  The Muslim rockets are inexpensive and simple to manufacture. The Israeli anti-missals probably cost over $1 million to make. Eventually, the Muslims can overwhelm and exhaust the Israeli defenses. Think how much in lost production it cost Israel to call up their military reserves. Israel does not have any friends or oil and its 1939 all over again for the Jews.
  
  Report this comment
- JD Carp
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 1:45pm
  The both of you are so incredibly on target! We must stand with Israel and build SDI immediately.
  
  Report this comment
castious
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 12:11pm
Wow been awhile since i have seen Wango on this site another briliant 2 watt bulb that is unlit

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- muffythetuffy
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 12:39pm
  REAGANS STAR WARS
  
  It would just be one more weapons program Obamavicts would be scraping.
  
  Report this comment
LibertyPages
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 10:54am
Spending on technology for national defense is always better than spending on technology for interventionism abroad.

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- GhostOfJefferson
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 11:44am
  Now that is a wonderful statement.
  
  Report this comment
Rothbardian_in_the_Cleve
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 10:44am
Funny, I don’t seem to remember the West Coast Missile Defense System doing jack squat when China parked a sub right off the coast of SD in Nov. 2010.

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- GhostOfJefferson
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 10:52am
  There was a sub parked off the coast of South Dakota?
  
  Looks like I need to get a new set of maps! :)
  
  Report this comment
- Rothbardian_in_the_Cleve
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 11:01am
  LOL,
  
  My bad GoJ. I go back and forth between San Antonio (SATX) and San Diego (SD) for work. Guess our jargon follows me in my communications.
  
  Report this comment
- Eastinfection
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 11:01am
  You need new maps GHOST?…
  
  Maybe Miss South Carolina was right after all ;)
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww
  
  Report this comment
- MontaraMissileMan
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 12:25pm
  You mean the Contrail of an aircraft filmed from an odd angle that Glenn thought was a missle launch that had no other evidence for it being anything of the sort?
  
  As someone who deals with that stuff for a living trust me, that wasn’t a missile. If it was there would be far more video of it on the internet. You can’t stop the flow of information on that level unless you have an internet kill switch.
  
  Oh wait…
  
  Report this comment
Eastinfection
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 10:44am
Actually… the best thing to come out of the Strategic Defense Initiative was LASIK eye surgery…

http://www.eyecareinstitute.com/LASIK/How-LASIK-Works.asp

Ronald Reagan cured blindness!! (not really- but he may have inadvertently raised a few MLB batting averages ;)

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longknifed
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 10:30am
Ronald Reagan and freedom or limited government should never be mentioned in the same sentence again. He raised more taxes, spent more money and grew government more than all previous presidents combined. Sure, he had a silver tongue when it came to preaching basic liberties, but he was just reading from a a script.

Because of neocon Reagan, a bartender could go to prison if a patron walked in S***faced, ordered one drink and killed 3 people in a wreck. Reagan made the BAC laws, field sobriety tests, DUI, DWI. This man was a statist.

He won the Republican nomination based off Ron Paul-like libertarian conspiracy theories about the Trilateral Commission and others, but swallowed a cyanide shill pill of big government when he was forced to partner with George HW Ruby Ridge Bush, forever washing away his classical liberalism.

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- Zipit
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 10:57am
  Long knifed, short memory! (And I’m sure, a short unit to boot). The longest sustained economic boom in history.
  
  Report this comment
- longknifed
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 12:37pm
  ahaha more typical insults and propaganda from a peon who can’t think for himself. I know its easy to be distracted by numbers because it blinds from the problems that were left behind like the world’s LARGEST prison population just to name one.
  
  I know, I know. It doesn’t concern you because you don’t break the law…even though the average person commits two misdemeanors a year without even knowing it because THE LAWS KEEP CHANGING.
  
  I don’t about you, well actually I do, but I don’t want to live in a police state anymore. I’m sick of being afraid of every cop car that drives past me.
  
  Report this comment
Carlinpa
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 10:21am
I can’t wait to see these facts reported on msDNC or CNN.. yup any day now.. any day..

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- jimbo_from_suwanee
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 10:32am
  I had to come up for air I was holding my breath. Okay….Here goes again……..Oh, man. I got to do that once more. Okay deep breath……
  
  Report this comment
Pork_Anvil
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 10:08am
Military support to Israel is the highest under Obama than it has been under any other president.

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- Anonymous T. Irrelevant
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 10:34am
  Why won’t Obama VISIT Israel? Is it because it looks bad, to his muslim brothers, to be going into the “Lion’s Den” of the infidel’s camp?
  
  Report this comment
- GhostOfJefferson
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 10:54am
  You can tell by all the troops we’re sending over there to help them.
  
  Report this comment
barber2
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 9:43am
I think the typical naive , young Democrats grew up hearing too many ” good jobs” for merely showing up and too many recountings of the David vs. Goliath story…( the Far Left Democrats grew up hearing too many ” hate American military/ capitalism/ nasty, white rich men ” stories )

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No-Really
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 9:31am
The really sad part is this question even has to be asked.

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- TurboCat
  Posted on November 21, 2012 at 5:27am
  I was told by a very smart older man in the 1970′s that the way to deal with the threat of nuclear destruction would be to invent something that would obliterate the nuke out in space before it could happen and then sure enough, Reagan began it. I never doubted that it worked so I was surprised to learn that people made fun of it. Wow. That happens a lot to visionary geniuses.
  
  Report this comment
bonesiii
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 9:15am
Current success, failure, or even scientific possibility of it has nothing to do with the indisputable (logically anyways) fact that his push for this was right. It’s common sense — we should research and think of ways of self-defense, even if we haven’t yet thought of it or achieved.

The criticisms of Reagan at the time were purely political.

And purely stupid.

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- Leader1776
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 9:25am
  Absolutely. The supposed masters of science …….. the architects of the non-science AGW …… the Dems were busy wetting themselves while Reagan used the possibility of a scientifically plausible concept to help bring down the Soviets.
  
  Not to worry . The Dems have upped their game with Reid, Pelosi and THE ONE.
  
  Report this comment
- steve61lindsey
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 9:39am
  I agree 100%. There are two types of people: those who say it can’t be done and those who are getting it done.
  
  Report this comment
cdn1979
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 9:12am
iron dome and star wars? Really? Iron dome shooting down a rocket from gaza is easier than skeet shooting. gaza rockets are basically flying tin cans. I’d be more worried about getting struck by a baseball at a ball game. if you have a glove and you can catch, you have nothing to worry about. curious to see how it would hold up against a real missile.

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- jman-6
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 9:23am
  It’s one thing to be thought of as an idiot; It’s another to open your mouth and remove all doubt!
  
  Report this comment
- Thornyrose13
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 9:56am
  … so it flew a hundred feet? big deal. i’d like to see how this “airplane” does flying over mountains, or the Atlantic ocean, or across the country….. “so it “sailed” along the shore. Big deal. i’d like to see it sail out of sight of land. Or across the ocean to Egypt, or past the pillar of Hercules…..
  Maybe it won’t work. But then again, until we try it we won’t know. And given the successes of the Iron Dome program, at least there is cause to believe that it might work on a larger, more complicated scale.
  
  Report this comment
- awalan
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 10:02am
  So, Hamas is just playing Flies and Grounders with the Israelis?
  How nice of them. They must be wonderful folks.
  
  Report this comment
- cdn1979
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 10:43am
  its not about how nice hamas is. They are not nice. no question there. i’m just saying they are as big a threat to israel as the weather is. they are small. they are weak. they are unorganized. the are outgunned, outmanned, outmanouvered, overall out matched. their is absolutely no comparison. They in no way resemble a capable fighting force.
  
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- GhostOfJefferson
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 11:17am
  Um, yeah, because tin can rockets travel at 10 mph and are huge in size like ICBM’s, just like picking off fish in a barrel. If you want to try something even easier, try shooting .308 projectiles from the air, because they travel at like 2mph and are a power of ten larger than an ICBM.
  
  Report this comment
TheePolitinator
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 9:10am
And if i survive an attack on US soil. I will hunt down every traitor I can.

I promise.

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- RightUnite
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 9:13am
  Trust me…. You will not be alone.
  
  Report this comment
- Stelex
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 9:19am
  Start with the media, JMHO
  
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- thegreatcarnac
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 12:13pm
  Good idea. We should be doing it now…lol!
  
  Report this comment
tzion
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 9:08am
Was there any doubt? The Iron Dome’s success is in the numbers. Only one Hamas rocket has caused any casualties.

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honor007
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 9:07am
absofrickinlutely~

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Gonzo
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 9:07am
Ah yes, the days when America had visionary leadership. It’s been a long time since we’ve had any.

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- Pantloadian
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 9:22am
  I have a vision . . . goes something like this:
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R67CH-qhXJs
  
  Yeah, that Reagan, real stand up guy.
  
  Report this comment
- Gonzo
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 9:33am
  How many people would actually click on a link from you Wango?
  
  Report this comment
- barber2
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 9:38am
  LOAD: Here to engulf us with his usual diaper unload…
  
  Report this comment
- Pantloadian
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 10:44am
  GONZO . . . Only those interested in the truth. I guess you’ll take a pass.
  
  Report this comment
- Gonzo
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 11:01am
  I’ll definately take a pass from your version of the truth Wango.
  
  Report this comment
- Pantloadian
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 11:24am
  GONZO . . . I so bestow it. Go forth and sin no more. And leave a little something in the plate on the way out, won’t you? Papa needs a new pair of red shoes.
  
  Report this comment
- DadRocked
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:43pm
  GONZO – Thanks
  Panties couldn’t and wouldn’t stay up with me on the Alsip IL water tower issue and ran away.
  What was it that he said to me? Oh, “You’re being willfully obtuse. It’s typical of someone who has no argument to make. I hope you’re more intellectually honest with your kids.””
  
  My reply, “And you base that on…?
  
  My credentials have been listed a number of times when one of your caliber comes at me.
  Funny though how I never get feedback from you clowns when confronted.
  
  Woosie, pink panties, never showed up for the challenge.
  
  You throw out, “How many people would actually click on a link from you Wango?”
  GONZO . . . Only those interested in the truth.
  “I’ll definately take a pass from your version of the truth Wango”
  
  Have to love it… GO GONZO
  
  Report this comment
- Pantloadian
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 4:32pm
  Calling all daddies. Calling all daddies. Don’t whine. Come back and tussle, won’t you?
  
  Report this comment
Gary_K
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 9:03am
In a word….YES !

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- honestynow
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 5:35pm
  Yes! And o has set us back.
  
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- Chet Hempstead
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 6:29pm
  No, because a 90% success rate against small chemical rockets fired from a hundred miles away is good, but a 90% success rate against Soviet ICBMs would mean we would all be dead.
  
  Report this comment

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