Imagine a fiber that could be woven into any fabric that makes everyday garments bullet proof, without compromising comfort or style. Would any reasonable person object to anyone/everyone wearing such clothes? And on what basis? That it would irritate criminals?

The analogy came to mind after hearing Barack Obama oppose the US missile defense shield. In this he agrees with the Russians, who claimed that after Iran shot off nine missiles, it proved the shield was unnecessary because none of the nine could have reached Europe. Israel? Yes.

Many people don’t know that Ronald Reagan conceived the idea of a missile defense shield as a way to make nuclear weapons moot. While the Cold War was still on, he offered the Soviets access to the technology we would develop, thus making a nuclear attack by either side futile. (Paradoxically, this concerned Margaret Thatcher because nukes were a far cheaper deterrent to any Soviet plan to invade Europe than tanks and standing armies.)

Gorbachev knew that his failed commie economy could never afford to build such a system, even with free technology from US. Checkmate to the evil empire.

Richard Fernandez wrote about the strategic advantages of a missile shield — it’s a meaty explanation that comes down to this: introduce sufficient uncertainty to make your enemies think twice before attacking you.

You’d think liberals would embrace missile defense because its objective is to deter war — y’know, give peace a chance. Instead, they’ve mocked it (calling it Star Wars) or fretted that it would upset the Russians. With Russia awash in oil profits, let them build their own.

Meanwhile, in a place where such arguments are not theoretical, Israel:

…has successfully tested a new defence system designed to intercept rockets fired from southern Lebanon and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, public radio reported on Sunday. The “Iron Dome” system is expected to be fully operational within a year and will be able to intercept the military-grade Katyusha rockets used by Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia and the cruder Qassam rockets favoured by Hamas.Citing Israeli security officials, public radio said the system would also be effective against mortar fire which has a much smaller window of warning.In January Prime Minister Ehud Olmert viewed a prototype of the 200-million-dollar (140-million-euro) system, which is being developed under contract by Rafael Advanced Defence Systems, an Israeli arms manufacturer.

Iron Dome is part of a multi-layered defence system aimed at protecting Israel from both short-range missiles fired by militants in Gaza or Lebanon and longer-range missiles in the arsenals of regional foes Iran and Syria.