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[Spanky]

Right now North Korea has the ability to launch a nuclear weapon right where I live. There is absolutely nothing anyone can do about it. If that pyschotic leader of NK has some minor indegestion he can press a button and vaporise half the people that post to this board.

If he tried to smuggle a weapon, or some other WMD, it would face all sort of logistical problems. But with a push of a button from that psychopath we are all cockroach ordeurves.

People say that SDI is insane because you are trying to stop a bullet with a bullet. But isnt' that what we did in the first Iraq war? With 1981 technology we were able to stop a bullet with a bullet. Yes - it was not perfect - it did not work all that great - but we showed it can be done. Since that time technology for the patriot was developed lazer and guidance technology has had a chance to develop another 25 years.

There is a large section of the scientific and technical community that think it can be done. There is also a large section that says it can't be done (mostly the same people who said we could never stop a bullet with a bullet). But generally people line up where you expect them to line up. People that are generally against any defense appropriations are against this program.

But there are a significant number of intelliegent and reasonable people in the field that think it can be done says there is a chance. A good one in fact.

So right now there is a lunatic that can vaporize me and there are some people that say they can do something about it. Is it not insane to not give them a chance? If ninety nine percent of the scientific community said it was not feasilbe - then OK. But if just twenty percent thought we could do it then shouldn't we move forward? But in this case it is about half and half.

I can't think of a single thing that the Federal government does that effects me more directly than this. I can't imagine a more immediate threat to my life than NK. This is not some long range geo-political security issue this is about the immediate life and death of most of the people I know.

And yet there are people proposing to kill this project because many people think it can't work. Not the overwhelming majority, just many people on the left. To me this is just not stupid but it is insane. People that are against this are so wrapped up in their ideology they can't see something that is totally painfully obvious.

A lunatic can kill us at any time very easily so shouldn't we try and do everything we can to change that situation no matter how small the chances of success?