Letters to the Editor
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
‘Shield Activated’
Regarding the front page editorial,”Shield Activated,” that ran on June 21, 2006, the political objective of this editorial is to demonstrate over again that the Democrats are soft on defense, whereas the Republicans have had the wisdom and tenacity to prepare America against the evil forces of North Korea.
To that end, the editorial creates first an impression that the Americans on the West Cost will be safer through the activation of the antimissile shield, should North Korea decide to launch its missile(s).
Next, the editorial reminds us that we owe the shield “to the visionary leadership of President Reagan and his ideological heirs.”
Finally, the editorial points the finger to “the two stalwart senators from New York,” Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton, who, as their voting record shows, have been opposing the early deployment of the ballistic missile defense.
It is instructive to compare the Manhattan Project with the Strategic Missile Defense Initiative, or Star Wars and its baby, the shield. During World War II, the administration was reaching out to the best and brightest among the scientists to use their intellectual power in service of the Manhattan Project that lead to the atom bomb.
In contrast, the Reagan administration was unable to win support for Star Wars from the same sources. The best and brightest among the scientists, who worked outside the government’s laboratories, offered evidence that contradicted the program’s feasibility.
However, the Reagan administration had much in common with the George W. Bush administration. Both have been strongly anti-intellectual and uncomfortable, when faced with the facts that contradict their ideological beliefs. To this day, the Reagan partisans claim that the Star Wars program forced the general secretary of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, to the negotiating table.
Congratulations. We fooled the Russians at the price of fooling the American public. After many years and dozens of billions of dollars, the tests proving the viability of the shield are yet to be performed. I challenge the editors of The New York Sun to provide any evidence that the shield makes American safer.
MAREK ELBAUM, Ph.D.
Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.
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