Blog

For more than 200 years, providing for “the common defense” of the sovereign soil of the United States has been an unquestioned mandate delivered to our government by the Constitution. But with the advent of more sophisticated weaponry, as well as rise of politically motivated ridicule of defense systems to neutralize high-technology attack systems, the government has stepped away from its historical mandate at perhaps the most dangerous time in history.

In particular, the real and present danger of rogue nations and anti-western terrorist regimes utilizing long-range, sub-orbital missiles to attack the continental United States begs for a solution that was proposed 25 years ago by President Ronald Reagan. But that was abandoned in favor of a lower budget, limited substitute that has now left the window of our skies dangerously open for exploitation — potentially to our great harm.

Early next year, The Heritage Foundation will release a high-definition documentary that tells the story of the very real threat that hostile nations and rogue dictators now pose to every one of us. The truth is brutal: no matter where on the earth a missile is launched from, it would take 33 minutes or less to hit the U.S. target it was programmed to destroy. We must cause people to stop and face this horrible reality.

Aptly named, “33 Minutes: Protecting America in the New Missile Age”, our documentary will be a key component in exposing our vulnerability to moms, dads and citizens across the country. The time has come to revive the strategic missile defense system that America uniquely can develop, maintain and employ for its own defense and the peace-loving world’s security.

Stay tuned to this blog for the latest news and commentary on missile defense, including photos, videos and other multimedia resources. The only way to secure America is to make a sustained commitment to national security by building robust strategic systems, including comprehensive missile defense. We firmly believe education is essential component to meeting that goal.

Last week, I was in New York City participating in the filming of The Heritage Foundation documentary on missile defense due, which is due out early next year.

The purpose of these scenes is to share with Americans the magnitude of the threat and the fragility of the peace and prosperity that we take largely for granted. The day started at “Ground Zero,” the site of the World Trade Center in downtown Manhattan where one of the most devastating foreign attacks on American soil took place on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.

Shortly after 8 a.m., hijackers commandeered two commercial airliners and launched them toward the towers. The entire attack took just over 30 minutes. The result was 2,974 innocents from more than 90 countries murdered. That was the result of just two planes loaded with jet fuel.

In contrast, if the attack had been a single ballistic missile with a small nuclear warhead launched from another continent, in that same time (just about 30 minutes flight time across the globe for a ballistic missile) the result would have been dramatically different.

In the next scene, I am standing at the edge of the rim of the affects that would be achieved by a small nuclear weapon detonated over downtown Manhattan — about a mile away on the opposite end of the Brooklyn Bridge.

In the event of nuclear attack everything you see behind me in the photo would be gone. Wall Street vaporized. The immediate causalities would be 500,000 to a million or more. The cost of the destruction and recovery would be in the many trillions of dollars — perhaps the cost of one hundred 9/11s.

Cross-posted on The Foundry.