BMD and Ford

In 1983 Ronald Regan gave his SDI speech where he said the goal was to make ICMB's "impotent and obsolete". Ted Kennedy dubbed the speech "Star Wars" and said it was impossible. Today SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative) is an operational BMD (Ballistic Missile Defense) system.

No, the system will not stop a full scale nuclear attack launched by the old USSR, or even Russia's current nuclear forces. It will give the US protection against North Korea or China's nuclear weapons. It will also insure any country trying to launch a single rocket to take out Los Angeles, New York or Washington DC, is likely to fail and we can give them a choice, surrender or be bombed back to the stone age.

The BMD system will not protect us from all attacks, but it will ensure that any country thinking of trying to blackmail the US by threatening to take out one of our cities (Iran, North Korea) or saying if we help an ally, we will lose Los Angeles (PRC general has already said the US will not defends Taiwan because we will not be willing to sacrifice Los Angeles for Taipei) will have to have enough force to penetrate our BMD system and then they would be open to massive retaliation of our nuclear forces. The system will make others think before attacking and that is the true worth of the system. Like nuclear weapons, if they ever have to be launched in anger, their primary function of deterrence has failed. Hopefully these missiles will never need to be used and can be dismantled at the end of the service lives.

Ford Motor Company is having even more problems. Poorly selling vehicles, declining sales, massive debt and no agreement with the UAW yet. Can it be turned around? If it makes a successful come back, it will be a source of business case studies for years to come, how they got into trouble and how they got out of it. Of course that is in the future and at the moment, it is not clear they can or will be turned around.