Amb. Henry F. Cooper, Chairman Lt. Gen. Daniel Graham, Founder
High Frontier . . Building Truly Effective Defenses . . Reagan’s Vision Lives!
E-Mail Message 121126
Star Wars over Gaza!
By Ambassador Henry F. Cooper
November 26, 2012
According to the Times of Israel, Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system shot down 84 percent of several hundred Iranian-supplied short-range ballistic missiles that Hamas launched from Gaza toward Israeli cities. This system, built in record time with U.S. help, demonstrated once again the importance of ballistic-missile defenses in the new world disorder.
This is not the first time we have seen this demonstrated. Who can forget the Patriot-Scud duel during Operation Desert Storm? The Patriot’s success helped Israeli citizens overcome their fear and return to work during very trying times — and most important, it offered Israeli leaders an alternative to entering the conflict directly, which would have split the Arab alliance with the U.S.-led coalition that rapidly defeated Iraqi troops and restored order in that troubled land, at least for a time.
I’ll never forget the results I personally witnessed as director of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) watching the team that produced every Patriot used in the first Iraq war. When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, only four Patriot interceptors were available, and those were intended for testing. The system was in its final stages of development, but those tests had not been completed before the system was taken into combat a few months later.
Click here to read my NRO article!
