mark@cbosgd.UUCP (12/03/83)
Here's what I don't understand. A while back, Reagan proposed doing R&D to push Star Wars style laser weapons, with the idea that they could shoot down any nuke heading for us. It seems to me that this is one possible solution to the current nuclear delemma: develop defensive weapons that make it impossible for a nuke to get close enough to us to do any damage. (Maybe they can even prevent it from going off, just destroying it harmlessly in the upper atmosphere with a little shrapnel and hydrogen left over.) Now, ignoring the technical problems (which are certainly of interest, just not part of my question), why the hell did the Soviets blast this plan as "more horrible US agression", with the net effect that it seems to have been forgotten about? Even if the Soviets steal the technology (and it seems to me they would - they've stolen all the previous US technology in the arms race) the result would be that the nukes would all become harmless.