In the great State of Israel there's a saying: Living between one ceasefire to another....
Always accompanied by a cynical smile, this saying pretty much sums up the state of mind according to which the great State of Israel has existed in the past half century.
This
vindictive and
wary state of mind has lead the people of the great
state of Israel to devise many useless and extremely expensive
gadgets, and other measures, to insure their '
personal safety'.
Looking back on the
1990's brings to mind the
Gulf War:
On August 2nd, 1990,
Iraqi troops invade
Kuwait. On December 17th of the same year,
Iraq is given an
ultimatum by the
UN, to withdraw its troops by January 15th, or face the
consequences. Sensing a war brewing, and fearing
Iraq's chemical
Scuds, the
Israeli government begins issuing
Gas Masks, and other
chemical warfare countermeasures, to its civilians. In addition, several
American '
Anti-missile'
Patriot missile batteries are deployed.
A post-war inquiry revealed that more than 70% of all civilian
masks were
malfunctioned, and would have been futile in case of a
chemical attack. Fortunately,
Iraq, fearing the fierce
American-
Israeli retaliation, launched only
conventional Scud missiles against
Israel.
An
Israeli
investigation committee stated that the performances of the
Patriot missile during the war were poor - a less than 30% success rate. The Patriot system, which was designed in the
1970's, relied on a
software originated from the same period, and was unable to make the accurate complicated calculations, required when
intercepting a
ballistic missile as the
Scud.
Ironically, its
Iraqi rival, the
Scud Al-Hussein, was of no better building quality, and most of the
Iraqi
missiles broke to pieces before reentering the
Atmosphere.
As a result of the
Iraqi
incompetency, and in spite of the
futile defence measurers, the damage inflicted by the
Scud attacks was scarce.
sources:
Gulf war chronology: FRONTLINE / WGBH Educational Foundation - http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/gulf/cron/
Patriot info: Untied states General Accounting Office report to the Congress - GAO/IMTEC-92-26 Patriot Missile Software Problem