Forty-plus years after Ronald Reagan launched the Strategic Defense Initiative America still does not have a serious missile defense. The U.S. Patriot air defense system is more expensive and less effective than Israel’s system, which includes not only Iron Dome but also the longer-range David’s Sling and Arrow systems. Arrow can and does take out ballistic missiles above the atmosphere.

The U.S. Aegis system, now with laser capabilities, is an astounding achievement.  Alas it is deployed in the lost cause of defending a carrier force made obsolete by satellites that can find the lumbering ships anywhere, exposing them to relentless attack.  

The U.S. could not repeat at scale anything like Israel’s near perfect repulse of the mass Iranian missile and drone attack of last April. If as seems increasingly likely Iran goes to all-out war against Israel, it will be Israel not the U.S. that defeats our greatest enemy in the region. If the Iranian nuke program is terminated likely it will be by Israel and not the U.S.  Israel is now fighting our wars and winning. So who is the leader of the Free World now?