North Korea Backs Down

[Thumpalumpacus]

I am relieved.

The era of Trump has taught me that sometimes the shit really does hit the fan, even when there's nary shit or fan in sight.

I would use this as an opportunity to advance anti-ICBM technology.

Perspective anti-ICBM technology seems more likely to increase the number of warheads that will get through rather than decreasing it, by encourage china and Russia to enlarge their arsenal by an amount equal to what it takes to get through, plus same safety margin. They can afford fairly large safety margins because it is far cheaper to build more ICBMs and equip them with penetration aids to defeat of missile defense than it takes to deploy the defense in the first place.

I did a paper on this in college. Between MIRVs, decoys, and cruise missiles, it seems obvious to me that even point-defense could be overwhelmed, and a nation-wide defense seems not possible with any technology we've conceived yet.