this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2024
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politics

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[–] [email protected] 58 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Could have shortened the title significantly, and reuse it daily.

"Trump speaks, experts say that's ridiculous"

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

the onion should've gotten on that a decade ago

[–] [email protected] 51 points 1 month ago (3 children)

There already is one. There are aound 100 Patriot missile batteries in the US. As usual Trump knows nothing about the subject he talks about.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 month ago

To be fair, they told him about this in dozens of briefings, but he was always distracted by his Happy Meal toy.

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[–] [email protected] 45 points 1 month ago (9 children)

You mean NORAD missile defence system?

The point of putting it around Canada was so missiles would be shot down over it instead of the US

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)

If NORAD can keep us safe from Santa they can keep us safe from anything

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Dude, nothing can protect us from Santa.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Except for Mrs. Claus! She stomps her foot and Santa gets grounded and goes to his room with his tail between his legs (yeah, they have a separate room arrangement)

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago (4 children)

You are so wrong… the most direct route for a missile attack to US from Russia passes over Canada, hence the location.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

He must have recently rewatched Reagan's Star Wars videos.

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[–] [email protected] 41 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I can build that for him for a cool 250 billion. I'm willing to guarantee 0% penetration of short range rockets launched by Hezbollah from anywhere in Lebanon.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 month ago (1 children)

That's outrageous! I'll do it for 249 billion!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

Honestly, I'll do it for a hundred bucks.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 month ago

To protect us from whom? I thought his love affairs with Putin and Kim Jong would protect us from anyone that might want to attack the US?

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

Do you think he realizes it's not LITERALLY a dome?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Simpsons did it!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

And in the shape of a T

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 month ago (3 children)

It's to keep us pesky Canadians from trebuchet-ing poutine over the border.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Are you telling me it's futile to face north, open my mouth and hope for poutine to rain upon me?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago
[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago

Keep the cobra chickens at bay. Smort.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Hopefully it’s more to keep the attack geese out. Loons too.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 month ago (1 children)

About time! We in Michigan are tired of the moose raids from Canada. They swim across our half of the lake and eat up our maple syrup.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

10 iron domes would not be enough!

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

To protect the US from rockets from... Canada?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

To protect him & his billionaire buddies from his fellow Americans.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

To protect a future, thoroughly fascist America from the rest of the free world should the GOP seize permanent power.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)

"I was elected to lead, not to read."

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago
[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago

AND MEXICO WILL PAY FOR IT!!!

/s

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Pretty sure we have multiple anti missile systems deployed already.

Also, who's shooting missiles at America right now?

I mean, other than North Korea, but that's like a 10 year old with a water rocket trying to blow up the school from across town.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Great, just what we need, an even louder Trump

A young Bart Simpson banging on a cooking pot on his head

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Doesnt america already have one??? Also in the current geopolitical environment this may not be the worst idea ever......

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago

Trump wants a lot of stupid shit. In the interest of national security, he should not under any circumstances be given any of it.

And this man is potentially going to be elected to run a country.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Trump thinks we are in the Middle East

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

Just East of the Midwest duh.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

That’s Pennsylvania, right? We know that’s the biggest “battleground state”.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Isn't this just Reagan's "Star Wars" program under a different name?

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yup - anyone who is likely to try and hit the US is far enough away is going to be using long range ballistic missiles, and it's been pretty conclusively demonstrated that it's technically feasible to intercept a single missile, it sure isn't reliable enough to be a reasonable deterrent or cheap enough to build enough launchers to give you any amount of coverage.

Iron dome works because Israel is small, with a concentrated population, and is being attacked with small, short range rockets that are easy to spot on radar - that isn't a likely scenario for the US to face

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Well, we're probably working on that with the SM-3. They took out a satellite with it so hitting a mid course ICBM shouldn't be too hard.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (2 children)

The issue with ICBM interception as I understand it is that it's one of those cases where the economics heavily favor the attacker. An intercept missile requires a rocket just as capable the one launching the target, if not more so. But, you can't afford letting even a few nukes get through, even one is devasting, so given that the chance of a successful intercept isn't 100 percent (my understanding is that it's well below 100% currently, for likely real world conditions), you need several intercept missiles for every missile your enemy has. Any countermeasures that make taking the enemy missile out harder, like deploying decoys or such, increases the needed resources on your end far more than it increases the resources used by them.

It might be viable against countries like North Korea where the difference in resources is vast enough, but against any serious opponent like Russia or China, it's not likely to work out.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

There are a couple things working in the defender's favor. The payload isn't nearly as heavy or large, so the rocket actually is quite a bit cheaper. This means putting multiples up for each ICBM isn't impossible. Also countermeasures deploy after re-entry. The SM-3 taking out a satellite was a big deal because it means it can hit stuff before re-entry and the protective covers come off. This also significantly cuts down on the number of intercepts required because Russian missiles actually carry a whole bunch of warheads and decoys.

So yeah it's still pretty hard to stop every warhead, but it's not the same situation as the 1980's where we'd be living in a post nuclear wasteland with every major city obliterated. Which is the point. We can go on as a country with a few craters. We cannot go on if we eat a thousand warheads.

To add really quick, it is a lot less missiles than people think. For example the Russians have 5,500 warheads. If all of them were slated for ICBMs then that would be around 500 missiles. Less because their smaller yields fit 15 per missile. And they aren't all slated for ICBMs either. Their current idea of ICBM defense is actually to send up short range nukes and nuke their own sky. They also have submarine and plane warheads which are dealt with by other missile defense systems. I don't want to make it sound like nukes are no big deal. I just don't want people thinking we're in the same situation we were 40 years ago. It would be a lot less devastating today.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

I'm sure a tinfoil hat can be arranged.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

It's called the Atlantic/Pacific oceans sport

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Is he going to occupy Mexico too? Maybe some modern manifest destiny?

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