So what? We are far richer as a nation and a defense force than they are with their crummy missiles. A pistol and its ammo are far more expensive than bare knuckles---but do we go without?
Doing without an expensive defense is a false economy. In the SDI years, we had estimated the cost of an orbital defense layer (90% effective) to be in the neighborhood of $ 50 billion (1980 dollars). Someone objected that would be too expensive to build. I replied that the alternative would be to rebuild New York city, Chicago, Washington DC, and other major cities destroyed as a result of a strategic nuclear attack.
Their 111 missiles were much cheaper than our counter attack though
So what? We are far richer as a nation and a defense force than they are with their crummy missiles. A pistol and its ammo are far more expensive than bare knuckles---but do we go without?
Doing without an expensive defense is a false economy. In the SDI years, we had estimated the cost of an orbital defense layer (90% effective) to be in the neighborhood of $ 50 billion (1980 dollars). Someone objected that would be too expensive to build. I replied that the alternative would be to rebuild New York city, Chicago, Washington DC, and other major cities destroyed as a result of a strategic nuclear attack.