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From: gda@unc.UUCP (Greg Abram)
Newsgroups: net.followup
Subject: Re: Star Wars Defense Plan
Message-ID: <10@unc.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 24-Aug-84 13:57:09 EDT
Article-I.D.: unc.10
Posted: Fri Aug 24 13:57:09 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 1-Sep-84 08:50:50 EDT
References: <966@ulysses.UUCP> <827@ihuxx.UUCP>, <389@intelca.UUCP>
Organization: CS Dept., U. of N. Carolina at Chapel Hill
Lines: 14

>>Dave brings up an interesting point. How does the MAD defense protect us 
>>against, say Iran, who lobs an old surplus ICBM at us? They could
>>only afford to buy one but we are sorta stuck trying to stop it from
>>blowing up LA or NY or even Smallville. I don't think anyone debates
>>the ability of a 10 Billion dollar systems ability to intercept 1 
>>missle. Course we could retaliate but what good does it do us? There
>>is nothing we want in Iran except oil.

If its nations you are worried about, MAD holds:  whether we want anything
out of Iran or not, they most likely aren't eager to get blasted.  
Terrorist groups, on the other hand, are not tied to a geographic area,
and MAD fails.  However, they are not really likely to get a hold of a
decent ICBM; rather, they would instead assemble the bomb in the
target area.  In which case the 10 billion dollars is wasted.