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Comment by zero_deg_kevin | Hacker News Reader

Are there any sources more credible than the US military reporting these phenomena? Until there are, I’m assuming this is just a ploy to get funding for some new asinine weapons system.

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The US military gets increases whether it likes it or not, no stunts required.

Sure, but stunts could be the difference between a $50 billion increase and a $60 billion dollar increase.

Example?

History is full of trumped up threats to justify a military budget increase. Star Wars was my first thought for an example, but it has some differences.

History is certainly full of trumped up threats. Japanese internment camps come to mind. I'm not sure Soviet ICBMs were trumped up, but the ability to target and intercept them with 1980s technology would certainly seem to be.

It's forty years later, we still have no great missile defense system, yet how many ICBMs have the USSR launched at us?

Both sides came closer to bomber and missile strikes each against the other than any sane person is comfortable with. MAD is one of the main reasons it never happened, and that itself is a discomforting thought.

>MAD is one of the main reasons

Yet the entire point of Star Wars was to end MAD. They used fear of an attack to justify spending money to try and end our best defensive tool.

I thought the point of SDI was to placate Reagan's ego. But yes, MAD was working such as it was and even if SDI could have intercepted a few missiles - which it didn't - it never would have stopped an all-out attack. I agree the funding was secured disingenuously. But then how big a lie do the warhawks need, and do they really need to believe it?

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