OPINION:
Iran is once again showing the world its leaders can’t be trusted (“U.S. condemns Iran’s detention of Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian,” Web, Dec. 7). They jail American journalists for no reason. And now they are allegedly cheating on the interim nuclear sanctions agreement that recently extended peace talks.
Thankfully, Congress is responding to the growing threat by increasing funding to expand and modernize our Ground-Based Midcourse Defense missile defense program. For more than a decade, this missile defense system has protected our homeland from the kinds of nuclear-armed ballistic missiles that Iran has been known to be building. Live-fire tests replicating real-world threats have demonstrated that the system works.
Yet as the threat increases, so must our capabilities. Our military should deploy more interceptors to the existing bases in Alaska and California — and consider expanding to a site on the East Coast, nearer to Iran. Engineers can continue to modernize the entire system to bolster accuracy and performance, and new radars and sensors will improve our ability to track enemy missiles and identify decoy countermeasures.
While I certainly hope Iran stops these provocative and rogue actions, I sleep better at night knowing our nation is protected by more than Iranian promises.
MAJ. GEN. MEL MONTANO
U.S. Air Force (retired)
Former Adjutant General, New Mexico National Guard
Albuquerque, New Mexico
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