With little warning, Iranian missiles rain down from on high, menacing massive east coast American cities like New York, Boston, and Washington DC. Suddenly, America is facing a threat like never before.
It makes for a good story, particularly if you want to sell a scared public on a war, or better still on an enormously expensive “missile defense” system aimed at shooting down the Iranian ICBMs. in the end though, it is just a story.
That’s becoming all the more clear today, as a new report from the Congressional Research Service is hitting Congress conceding that the claims of Iran menacing the coast by 2015 are not only nonsense, but that Iran is unlikely to ever develop missiles with that sort of range.
Iran has pumped money into improving its missiles, but primarily in increasing their accuracy, ensuring retaliatory strike capabilities if Israel ever follows through on its oft-repeated threat to attack them. Hitting Europe, let alone North America, simply isn’t a priority.
The illusory threat has fueled some major contracts for America’s major contractors, charging exorbitant amounts for building systems that were unlikely to be able to actually shoot down missiles in the first place. Since those missiles aren’t coming anyhow, the systems’ dubious functionality will likely be less a concern going forward.