Leadership Quote by Dick Cheney

Confidence is the point here, not nuance. Cheney stacks plainspoken certainties - "We know how to do it. We know how..". - to manufacture inevitability around a project that has always lived in the gap between engineering promise and geopolitical reality. The rhythm is salesmanship dressed as security policy: reassure the public that the hard part is solved, then pivot to the only acceptable conclusion in Washington - fund and deploy more.

The phrase "limited strikes" is doing heavy political work. It shrinks the nightmare of nuclear war into a manageable scenario, the kind that can be met with a technical fix. That narrowing also sidesteps the most destabilizing critique of missile defense: that even a partial shield can scramble deterrence, invite arms racing, and encourage adversaries to build more missiles, decoys, or alternative delivery methods. By keeping the threat "limited", Cheney keeps the solution "responsible" and avoids sounding like he's chasing the sci-fi dream of an impenetrable dome.

Naming North Korea and Iran is equally strategic. It tethers an expensive, technically contested system to the era's most reliable villains - regimes that, in early-2000s U.S. politics, could justify exceptional measures with minimal bipartisan friction. The subtext is a familiar Cheney move: frame uncertainty as urgency. Yes, "a lot more work" remains, but that's precisely why action must be immediate. Doubt becomes a reason to accelerate, not to reconsider.

As vice president in the post-9/11 national security climate, Cheney is also signaling a broader doctrine: preemption by preparation. Missile defense isn't presented as one tool among many; it's positioned as the adult, protective posture of a superpower that refuses to be vulnerable, even to "limited" catastrophe.