The dream of missile defense is unfeasible

HERE CAN BE wisdom in cliche. More than 120 years after philosopher George Santayana wrote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” his well-known phrase remains an essential guide for national defense.

- STEVEN ANDREASEN AND ANTHONY LAKE GUEST CONTRIBUTORS

LEO CORREA Associated Press ISRAEL'S IRON DOME, intercepting an attack from Lebanon last August, is not a practical model for a U.S. system.

Case in point: The French failed to draw the proper lessons from the brutal trench warfare of World War I and constructed a better, yet still fixed, static defense in the 1930s — the Maginot Line — that was simply bypassed by the Germans on their way to Paris during World War II.

It can also be a mistake to learn too much from a recent success, applying those lessons to different circumstances. For example, Israel has been remarkably successful at ballistic missile defense with its “Iron Dome,” built to defend against shortand medium-range missile attacks from its regional enemies. So President Trump has launched his program to expand current U.S. missile defenses and build a “Golden Dome” — similar in concept, but designed to defend the entire U.S. against long-range missile attacks. And already, with little national debate, Congress is allocating $38 billion this year toward the estimated $175-billion final cost, to be completed by January 2029 — its timing a parting gift from the president (assuming he leaves the White House on schedule).

Is this modern shield a sustainable or wise choice for allocating U.S. defense dollars? It assumes that the Israeli missile defense against threats in its neighborhood can be replicated by the United States — a nation nearly 450 times the size of Israel — against global threats including the world’s big boys, Russia and China. That assumption could produce a massively expensive venture, not “golden” but instead built of fool’s gold, with as little thought for the future strategic environment as the French gave to the Maginot Line.