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The Star Wars program was designed to zap incoming missiles (i.e., a pure self-defense system), not for "lasering communists from space". I suspect that you're

The Star Wars program was designed to zap incoming missiles (i.e., a pure self-defense system), not for "lasering communists from space". I suspect that you're not actually interested in the facts here.

DonHopkins 9y ago
You just said it was designed to bankrupt Russia, not zap incoming missiles. Which is it?
- Zuider 9y ago
  I don't see the implied dichotomy here. The separate goals of 'zapping incoming missiles' and provoking the Soviet Union into a destructively expensive arms race are not incompatible.
  - DonHopkins 9y ago
    The point is that if it was a head-fake to provoke the Soviet Union into destroying itself by defense spending (which is NOT the reason the Soviet Union collapsed), then 'zapping incoming missiles' was a lie. And if it really could 'zap incoming missiles', then it wasn't a head-fake. The fact of the matter is SDI was a fraud on the American people, the United States wasted huge amounts of money on it, it couldn't 'zap incoming missiles', the defense contractors cheated, took the money and ran, which could have been used for much better purposes, because the Soviet Union collapsed for completely different reasons than overspending to compete with SDI. http://www.nytimes.com/1990/09/18/science/technical-failures-bedevil-star-wars.html?pagewanted=all http://www.nytimes.com/1990/09/18/science/technical-failures... Technical Failures Bedevil Star Wars >For the first time, after years of level financing at around $4 billion, opponents are on the verge of pushing through deep budget cuts in the program, which so far has cost $20 billion. The House leadership is moving to slice in half the Bush Administration's request of $4.7 billion for Star Wars for the fiscal year 1991, to $2.3 billion. The Senate voted to set aside $3.7 billion. >[...] In a dozen or so major tests conducted this year, half have experienced problems, ranging from runaway rockets to warhead explosions to satellite malfunctions. The failures have marred the most ambitious and costly agenda in the program's history, intended to be the first broad demonstration of anti-missile technologies that have been incubating in laboratories, often amid great secrecy, for more than seven years since President Ronald Reagan started the program in March 1983. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/reagans-great-lie-in-the-sky-star-wars-scientists-may-have-deceived-moscow-and-congress-about-the-1463972.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/reagans-great-lie-in... Reagan's great lie in the sky: Star Wars scientists may have deceived Moscow and Congress about the project, writes David Usborne in Washington >Now, however, allegations are being made that the entire experiment was a scientific fraud. According to a New York Times report based on interviews with four unidentified former Reagan officials, the two missiles had secretly been fitted with radio beacons to guarantee their meeting in space.
    - valuearb 9y ago
      Yep, their goals and expectations were overly ambitious. But that doesn't mean we don't need ABM technologies, as N Korea proves daily.
      - DonHopkins 9y ago
        So overly ambitious that they were fraudulent and fictitious. It's almost as if the goals of Star Wars were written by a ... drunken science fiction writer! But that doesn't mean we don't need everlasting world peace, or a pony, or whatever fantasy your heart desires, as N Korea proves daily.
asveikau 9y ago
I think it must have been your sense of humor that ended the cold war. The comment you're replying to is very obviously not serious. Actually, the best commentary I have heard on this subject is that the Soviet Union fell of its own internal conflict and didn't need help from your pal Ronnie. And to further reply to your cousin-comment to this one there is a huge difference between a constitutional mandate and a very specific implementation... Nobody mandated Star Wars.
- ci5er 9y ago
  Breaking the back of OPEC, plummeting the price of oil played no small factor. Even today, with the bounties of modern production tech, Saudi Arabia and Russia and Venezuela are hurting more than a little...
mcguire 9y ago
"a pure self-defense system" There is no such thing. A good defense is the best offense.

DonHopkins 9y ago

You just said it was designed to bankrupt Russia, not zap incoming missiles. Which is it?

Zuider 9y ago
I don't see the implied dichotomy here. The separate goals of 'zapping incoming missiles' and provoking the Soviet Union into a destructively expensive arms race are not incompatible.
- DonHopkins 9y ago
  The point is that if it was a head-fake to provoke the Soviet Union into destroying itself by defense spending (which is NOT the reason the Soviet Union collapsed), then 'zapping incoming missiles' was a lie. And if it really could 'zap incoming missiles', then it wasn't a head-fake. The fact of the matter is SDI was a fraud on the American people, the United States wasted huge amounts of money on it, it couldn't 'zap incoming missiles', the defense contractors cheated, took the money and ran, which could have been used for much better purposes, because the Soviet Union collapsed for completely different reasons than overspending to compete with SDI. http://www.nytimes.com/1990/09/18/science/technical-failures-bedevil-star-wars.html?pagewanted=all http://www.nytimes.com/1990/09/18/science/technical-failures... Technical Failures Bedevil Star Wars >For the first time, after years of level financing at around $4 billion, opponents are on the verge of pushing through deep budget cuts in the program, which so far has cost $20 billion. The House leadership is moving to slice in half the Bush Administration's request of $4.7 billion for Star Wars for the fiscal year 1991, to $2.3 billion. The Senate voted to set aside $3.7 billion. >[...] In a dozen or so major tests conducted this year, half have experienced problems, ranging from runaway rockets to warhead explosions to satellite malfunctions. The failures have marred the most ambitious and costly agenda in the program's history, intended to be the first broad demonstration of anti-missile technologies that have been incubating in laboratories, often amid great secrecy, for more than seven years since President Ronald Reagan started the program in March 1983. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/reagans-great-lie-in-the-sky-star-wars-scientists-may-have-deceived-moscow-and-congress-about-the-1463972.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/reagans-great-lie-in... Reagan's great lie in the sky: Star Wars scientists may have deceived Moscow and Congress about the project, writes David Usborne in Washington >Now, however, allegations are being made that the entire experiment was a scientific fraud. According to a New York Times report based on interviews with four unidentified former Reagan officials, the two missiles had secretly been fitted with radio beacons to guarantee their meeting in space.
  - valuearb 9y ago
    Yep, their goals and expectations were overly ambitious. But that doesn't mean we don't need ABM technologies, as N Korea proves daily.
    - DonHopkins 9y ago
      So overly ambitious that they were fraudulent and fictitious. It's almost as if the goals of Star Wars were written by a ... drunken science fiction writer! But that doesn't mean we don't need everlasting world peace, or a pony, or whatever fantasy your heart desires, as N Korea proves daily.

asveikau 9y ago

I think it must have been your sense of humor that ended the cold war. The comment you're replying to is very obviously not serious. Actually, the best commentary I have heard on this subject is that the Soviet Union fell of its own internal conflict and didn't need help from your pal Ronnie. And to further reply to your cousin-comment to this one there is a huge difference between a constitutional mandate and a very specific implementation... Nobody mandated Star Wars.

ci5er 9y ago
Breaking the back of OPEC, plummeting the price of oil played no small factor. Even today, with the bounties of modern production tech, Saudi Arabia and Russia and Venezuela are hurting more than a little...

mcguire 9y ago

"a pure self-defense system" There is no such thing. A good defense is the best offense.