Question: Why hasn't the Missile Shield (MS) been canceled???

The MS was was designed to protect the US against the Axis of Evil WMDs. Namely Iraq, Iran, and North Korea. And well, as it turns out NONE of these countries have a WMD capability, they are not even close. The MS was never intended or capable of dealing with a full scale nuclear attack from Russia, China or any ICBM armed country. If such an attack would occur it would be powerless to stop it. Therefore it is totally USELESS, not to mention exorbitantly expensive.

So why on earth does this white elephant still exist?

Answer: Has anybody check the share price of Raytheon or Boeing? (the major MS contractors). The MS has always been about money to major GOP election contributors, not about defense.

However, I agree with 5.56 about giving Poland what they need. They are an important Ally and they have been good to us. However we should give them what they want as an act of friendship, not as any type of 'deal'. We don't charge Israel for the annual $11 Billion and Poland is both a strategically important and a historically a much better friend to us.

North Korea has nukes. It's confirmed. But they don't have any means of loading them up onto long ranged missiles.

But I also have some issues about this missile shield.
Maybe it's actually for Russia but they don't want to provoke the Russians by saying they're being installed to counter them.

13th

N.Korea has a Nuclear device, not a nuclear weapon and its at best unstable. The last spectacular failure of nuclear test was a clear indication of how unprepared they are. North Korean fireworks are more dangerous.

They are no threat to anybody, but themselves. Its certainly not a reason to justify the abandonment of the 1972 ABM treaty nor the Billions invested in developing much a White elephant. Furthermore the MS is of no use against Russia which has 1000s of missiles. It serves absolutely no military purpose whatsoever.

Never heard of their last failed detonation actually.
But yeah, they don't have a means of delivering those "devices" if you will.
What makes you think they don't actually have a nuclear weapon?

As for the shield... I don't know. I guess I got to read up on it but it does seem like it's not a great idea.

Originally Posted by rock45

Now I'm getting a better feel for Poland and the situation so does anybody know what they need?

I think I can answer this question.

First of all Poland is one of the few countries that are able to design and produce almost all kinds of weapon systems for its Armed Forces but Polish military industry have one Achilles' heel and that is medium and long range AA systems.

So the most desired aspect is modernization of the Polish air defense by acquiring newest generation of Patriot and THAAD missiles in exchange for installation of the antiballistic missile defense system on our territory.

Second: Warsaw is worried that by allowing the US missile defence system on to its territory Poland would become a target for Russian ballistic missiles, so the government wants anti-missile systems, such as Patriot or THAAD, a high-altitude system, to protect Polish air space.

Sounds absolutely reasonable.