Quote:
Originally posted by Superbelt
I could support SDI... research. Not development yet. And the Lasers. I can see that have other excellent applications even if it never worked. But ABM is a lost cause. I fully believe that. I think that, at least, needs to be scrapped today.
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Just because you *belief* that ABM is a lost cause does not make it so.
Research and development in that area can (and will) produce new technology that will make it worthwile. It will easily pass the 1 trillion mark that was mentioned. Why? Because it will be available *forever*, and that is a very long time indeed...
Besides, there will probably be tons of side-effects and unintential discoveries that may change the world as we see it completely. It may be the start of a technology boom the likes we have never seen. An example: there were trials already with missiles using small "ion engines" to manouver. Extrapolate from that, and we end up with a potential for higher-speed inter-planetary space travel...
In short: we cannot know whether the money spend on ABM is wasted or not, regardless of the end results for the system itself.