Star Wars - if they should bar wars, let this one stay

Back in the early 1980s, the Reagan administration proposed the development of a land- and space-based anti-ballistic missile system for the purposes of destroying ballistic missiles bound for the United States. In popular culture, this system (properly known as the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)) became known as Star Wars, after the movie series of the same name. For a variety of reasons, perhaps most notably the ending of the Cold War, SDI never came to be, but its basic premise was never forgotten.

Over the past year or so, the news has occasionally reported on the U.S.'s intention to place a missile defense site in Poland. Russia, in particular, has been against this development. One way around this would be to incorporate Russia in the project - the project is presently about defending against single missiles launched by a rogue state, which Russia is not. Indeed, Russia proposed this solution, to a degree, but was turned down.

Today, a U.S. ship fired a rocket that destroyed an orbiting satellite. Russia, and particularly China have protested the shooting-down of the satellite. If the U.S. can shoot down one of its own satellites, certainly it can shoot down one of Russia's or China's, and China, of course, shot down one of its own satellites last year.

Stay tuned. This may be the start of the next cold war.