very agreed.
but thanks to things we cherish like democracy, liberty, and some transparency of government, unless it does work, everyone will know it doesn't work.
if i was tehran, pyongyang, or beijing, i wouldn't be the least bit afraid that americans could shoot down an incoming mirv nuclear-warheaded icbm coming down over l.a.
to be honest, i wouldn't expect them to be able to intercept a single mirv icbm in the next 10 years.
oh, and why is beijing in that list? don't they have dozens of nuclear icbms? i think they're effectively almost as much of a nuclear threat as russia ever was, aren't they?
not that i'm saying that china has as many nukes as russia did: but if china launched at us, they'd have more than enough to destroy every major city, wouldn't they?