Nor have ground-based systems enjoyed much more success. During a test in May, thaad went thunk, exploding after a mere five seconds in the air. Here conservatives exude more than optimism. We've wasted the better part of two billion on national missile defense. The technological assumptions behind this theory may be iffy, but these activists complain that the administration's attachment to the ABM Treaty has prevented it from even looking into the idea.
Most conservatives call for junking the ABM Treaty itself.
This is a bit of a stretch. This, at least, is something that seems technologically feasible, according to Richard Garwin. Of course, the Russians, who are proving increasingly obstreperous in nuclear negotiations, may have been the ones who provided the Iranians, North Koreans, and Iraqis with some of the knowledge and material to help build ballistic missiles in the first place. And, while the Russians might be sympathetic, they also know the difficulty of constructing a successful defense system all too well. As Herbert York, former science adviser to John F. Kennedy, observes, it didn't do the Russians much good when Mathias Rust flew straight into Red Square in a single-engine plane.