National Security Correspondent Bill Gertz addressed the “Golden Dome for America” event hosted by Threat Status on May 13, 2025, at the Ritz-Carlton, Pentagon City, in Arlington, Va.
In the news business, the best stories are always surround political conflict controversy, and in Washington there is no shortage of that.
And missile defense was one of those conflicts, and the debate revolved around supporters who recognized the growing sophistication and danger of missiles and wanted to protect people’s lives.
On the other side were opponents who viewed missile defense as dangerously destabilizing. First, during the nuclear standoff with Washington into Moscow, and there’s kind of a residual opposition to that now as we’re pitted against basically China, Russia, North Korea, and in the not-too-distant future, Iran.
I’ve been covering missile defense since Ronald Reagan announced the SDI program, the Strategic Defense Initiative Program in 1983. But SDI sought to end what many strategic analysts saw as a kind of a immoral policy of mutually assured destruction, the idea that deliberately leaving populations at the mercy of nuclear attack would deter wars.
Well, it worked for a while. But today, however, deterrence itself is under attack. The deterrence calculus that drove arms control talks and negotiations and agreements between Washington and Moscow is all but dead. Could it be revived? Likely not, especially with the emergence of China.
Watch the video to see the full remarks.
See more on ’Golden Dome for America’ from Threat Status at The Washington Times.
SPECIAL
COVERAGE: Golden Dome for America
