Retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark told Newsmax on Tuesday that he's "all in" on President Donald Trump's Golden Dome missile defense program.
"This strategic defense is very important for the United States," Clark said on "The Record With Greta Van Susteren." "We've never done it right. We've always dodged it. We've got a few interceptors in Alaska and California. It doesn't deal with the current threat. I'm all in on this, provided the technology is solid and works."
Trump announced a multilayered $175 billion defense system on Tuesday that will put U.S. weapons in space for the first time. The president said he expects the system to be "fully operational before the end of my term" and capable of intercepting missiles "even if they are launched from space."
Clark said the complex missile defense system will "probably will take more than three years" to build and will "probably cost more than $175 billion." Nevertheless, he said, "Let's get started on it."
"When the conflict in Ukraine began in earnest in February of 2022, there were nuclear threats thrown around, and the United States didn't really have any way of dealing with these threats other than by sort of implicitly threatening back," Clark said. "It would be a lot better if we had a defensive system so we're not vulnerable to those kinds of threats when we're concerned about our allies' welfare."
The former NATO supreme allied commander also said that the threat landscape that the U.S. faces today has changed significantly from the days of the Cold War.
"I think the notion of mutually-assured destruction, the deterrence that supposedly existed between the United States and the Soviet Union, has basically broken down," he said. "You have three major nuclear powers. You have Iran out there threatening to get nuclear weapons, you have North Korea that does have nuclear weapons that can strike the United States, and so you're facing in multiple directions. It's not just a matter of saying let's get along with the Soviet Union now. It's what about China? What about Russia? What about this? What about that? What about Taiwan?
"So, I think it's only natural that it's better to be able to defend oneself against threats like this than it is to say, 'Well, you can go ahead and destroy us, but don't worry, we've got some submarines and we can destroy you back,'" Clark continued. "That's never been a very satisfactory answer, but we skated through it in the Cold War, mainly because the Soviets really didn't want to push the competition with us. They knew they were losing, and ultimately the Soviet Union fell apart. This is a different world. I think we do need to look at strategic defense."
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Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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