Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site whuxl.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!houxm!whuxl!orb From: orb@whuxl.UUCP (SEVENER) Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: Re: Star Wars defense Message-ID: <165@whuxl.UUCP> Date: Sun, 19-Aug-84 20:41:36 EDT Article-I.D.: whuxl.165 Posted: Sun Aug 19 20:41:36 1984 Date-Received: Tue, 21-Aug-84 00:12:49 EDT References: <1650@ucbvax.UUCP> Organization: Bell Labs, Whippany, N.J. Lines: 23 The Star Wars defense can NEVER be 100% guaranteed--so long as even 1% of the Soviet Union's 20,000 current nuclear weapons could survive the Star Wars defense then the U.S. will be virtually annihilated. But assuming only 20,000 nuclear weapons in the face of a U.S. effort to knock down all Soviet weapons is excessively optimistic. After several arms agreements both the USSR and the US have dismantled past nuclear weapons systems to replace them with more modern ones. There would be absolutely no way the Russians would do that given the threat of the huge American offensive arsenal coupled with a Star Wars defense. Instead moving towards a Star Wars system seems the surest way to accelerate the already overheated arms race to unprecedented proportions. It also violates one of the most important treaties ever negotiated between the US and USSR-the ABM treaty. That treaty has been the only thing standing in the way of massive Soviet deployments of ABM sites throughout the Soviet Union which would encourage the Soviet Union's first strike capability. Tim Sevener whuxl!orb Bell Labs, Whippany