Fast behind Kennedy's first strike came a withering pre-emptive launch of counter-criticisms. The Soviets will overwhelm an imperfect system with a nuclear barrage. They'll deploy sophisticated missiles with multiple warheads. They'll deploy real missiles among fakes filled with chaff to spoof any missile defense.
Even a single missile slipping through would wreak damage beyond our imagining. As the bumper stickers of the day proclaimed, "One Nuclear Bomb Can Ruin Your Whole Day." In the closed-loop logic of M.A.D adherents, if a missile system wasn't perfect, it would be provocative. As no system could promise perfection, none should be deployed.
Fast forward to this first fifth of the 21st Century, and the question is who's M.A.D now?
Chaff, MIRVs, a massive barrage: The objections launched against the old "Star Wars" SDI don't pertain. A nuclear North Korea or Iran will have none of these.
But they may be armed with something we now know the Soviets lacked: a life-affirming fear of nuclear annihilation. Unmoored from institutional instincts of self-preservation, North Korea's dictator and Iran's mullahs could do more damage with a single nuclear weapon -- or several -- than the Soviets and Americans bristling with tens of thousands of the devices. Turns out that old Cold War bumper sticker was right after all: "One Nuclear Weapon Can Ruin Your Whole Day."
Which brings us back to the present. North Korea tested its bomb and launched its missile, and word now is that yet another nuclear test may be in the offing. As for Iran, last year's grand nuclear deal notwithstanding, we're now told by U.S. officials that should Tehran choose to break out, its sprint to a bomb would take 12 months at most.
The choice is ours: We can rest our security on the power of our intelligence agencies to predict the next breakout, or to discern when the next test launch is really a surprise attack. Or we can get serious about deploying the missile defenses our allies understand are essential in our world of nuclear rogue nations. There's nothing M.A.D about that.
(AP photo)
