Long Range Ballistic And Cruise Missiles example essay topic

What is thought of when someone says, "It is time to go to war"? Is it the thousands of troops that are sent overseas? Maybe it is the aircraft that will be sent to bomb the enemy? These things represent "war" in many people's minds. How often does one think about losing his or her life to a long range missile strike set in action from thousands of miles away? With the increasing technology of the human race this scenario is becoming more realistic everyday.

The ability of a rogue nation to acquire and employ long range ballistic and cruise missiles makes a missile defense system necessary, as soon as possible, in order to assure the safety of the United States. The first successful use of a ballistic and cruise missiles took place during World War II. "The Germans employed two competing systems: the V-1 cruise missile and the V-2 ballistic missile" (Carus 2). At this time, the technology was not available to produce a long range cruise missile that was accurate, so most of the armament used was ballistic in nature.

The Germans launched over twenty thousand missiles at various cities in and around England killing approximately 12,000 civilians (Carus 2). The number of people killed compared to the amount of time, money, and effort spent to get the missiles into the air was minute, but the Germans had started something that would change the view of warfare forever. The people of England, including the military, had never seen these weapons in battle. This gave the Germans an extreme psychological advantage because there was no way to defend this new and powerful type of weapon. In this situation the Germans could not enter British airspace with aircraft, but that did not stop them from attacking major cities and causing considerable damage to the Allies, while saving troops for later battles. After World War II the United States and the Soviet Union realized the importance of a weaponry system capable of penetrating enemy air defenses.

"By the early 1960's the United States and the Soviet Union possessed impressive arsenals of ballistic missiles, including systems capable of attacking cities at intercontinental ranges" (Carus 2). The missiles were not accurate and could not make precision strikes on the enemy but saved the lives of many troops that did not have to be sent into combat. As technology of the ballistic missile became more accessible and third world countries gained access to the resources needed to procure them, the rate of proliferation greatly increased. Countries saw the weapon as a status symbol because if they could acquire them they gained instant power. Ballistic missiles were being sold to countries such as Jordan, Syria and many other countries that were not considered threats, which caused the sense of security in the United States to diminish. After the Cold War relations between the United States and Russia were fragile.

There was still a revolution in most of Eurasia and the future of the United States' diplomacy with them depended on its outcome. This situation was handled diplomatically and the goals to have peaceful relations with the Soviet Union, outlined after the Cold War, were met (Pfaltzgraff 2). The tension created by the knowledge of the spread of ballistic missiles invited a hostile environment for diplomatic relations after the Cold War, but through careful relations the potentially dangerous situation with the Soviet Union using its arsenal were avoided. The tension caused by the capability of ballistic and cruise missiles can also be seen in the relations between the United States and North Korea.

The United States and the Soviet Union signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Force (INF) treaty opening the market to smaller less powerful third world countries. This opened the door for North Korea which started exporting missiles in the 1980's to Iran (Carus 14). Theatre missile defense systems have been proposed in Japan to counter attacks but officials worry that the placement of these systems will seem provocative to the North Koreans (Mochizuki 180). The situation with North Korea and what happened after the Cold War are politically different. The North Korean government is not getting ready to negotiate with the United States or the United Nations (Weisman 1).

They have nuclear fuel rods in storage that, if processed, could account for a "serious nuclear arsenal" (Sanger 1). With the United States' present situation in Iraq there is a very good chance that defending multiple fronts might be a possibility. This would not be what President Bush wanted when he told the United States, in an address, that he would do anything to prevent American loss of life. The few isolated situations the United States has been and is involved in deal with only a few of the nations that have long range strike capability. With the increase in technology that the world is going through, production of weapons that can cause disaster through the push of a button is increasing exponentially. This proliferation of long range devices adds to the problem of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons' capabilities and presents a previously unseen dilemma.

Diplomacy is becoming a process through which a nation can buy time, to enhance their power through weapons of mass destruction, instead of resolve conflict. It is time to realize that there is no way to account for every weapon that can be used against the United States and monitor its readiness. One of Sun Tzu's most powerful and fundamental elements of war is surprise. If a threat from an adversary becomes eminent, it is possible that heavy damages will be suffered before subduing the enemy. If the attack comes unexpectedly from more than one of the many nations that could have long range capabilities, or obligations in another country at the time of the attack (possibly Iraq), there is a good chance that the United States could find itself in a situation that will require the use of weapons of mass destruction in order to survive.

The United States should never have to resort to an exchange of weapons of mass destruction. Therefore it makes much more sense to employ a system of early warning and defense to protect this great nation from attack. The ocean that separates The United States from its enemies once took half a year to cross. Now an intercontinental ballistic missile can cross the same ocean in a matter of minutes..