STAR WARS

I wasn't a Reagan fan back in the 1980's. I was in my teens and had a fixation on the various wars in Central America. I was quite repulsed by his support of the contras and the rather nasty regimes in Guatemala and Salvador. It was the only issue for me.

While I remain repulsed by much of what happened in that region at that time, I've long since reevaluated my opinions of Reagan, the man, his economics and his foreign policies. I won't go into detail because it would take far too long. To state things simply, I was almost always wrong and he was almost always right.

A few days ago, I was reminded of one of the many things that I was wrong about in the 1980s. I opposed Reagan's proposed 'Star Wars' missile defense shield. Mark Steyn today offers one of his older columns explaining why missile defense is, more than ever, a sensible pursuit.

What reminded me of 'Star Wars' was a comment made by a dear friend about one of my posts on the Canadian election. He noted that in the case of a Liberal minority government, the socialist NDP would support the Liberals if they, among other things, declared that Canada would not take part in a missile defense shield.

My friend, who is left-of-center but not to any great extreme, thought this wasn't a bad idea.

I disagree. Opposing Canada's participation in a defense shield would be a very, very, bad idea.

For starters, it would simply be bad politics. By opposing the shield Canada would essentially be saying that we, as Canadians, don't really object to the idea of Seattle getting nuked. We'd also - once again, and rightfully so - be accused of being “defense freeloaders.”

More importantly, Canada should participate because the development of long-range missiles by rogue states is a serious threat.

There were criticisms of the Bush administration in the weeks following 9-11 that it was too focused on missile defense and not paying enough attention to terrorism. To be contrarian, the administration was focussing on the right issue. A North Korean nuclear attack on the US West Coast or on Japan was and remains a more ominous threat than Al-Qaeda.

Certainly, Al-Qaeda should be eradicated. However, they do not at present have the destructive capabilities of Kin Jong-il. Tomorrow morning, if he had the the urge, Kim could obliterate a west coast Japanese city. In a while, he may be able to hit Seattle. That is something that must be guarded against.

There is no guarantee that Pakistan will not fall to a fundamentalist regime and threaten India. Eventually, Iran may have the capability to make good on its promise to obliterate the Jewish state. Preventing such things from happening is a moral obligation.

One thing that Steyn neglects to mention in his column is that 'Star Wars' was a probably a major contributor to the demise of the Soviet Union. It has been argued that because of 'Star Wars' the USSR realized that it couldn't keep up with the US in terms of technology or economic strength - prompting Gorbachev's reforms.

If 'Star Wars' could help prompt the fall of the Evil Empire, it seems more than probable that a workable missile defense shield could help prompt the fall of the much weaker tyrannical regimes in North Korea and Iran.

And that's possibly the best reason for Canada to support missile defense. It could be a peaceful way of getting rid of Kim Jong-il.