Executive Director John Tierney spoke with The Times about “A House of Dynamite” and missile defense.
John Tierney, the executive director at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, and a former nine-term congressman from Massachusetts, also praised the film’s accuracy. “It’s close enough that people should be concerned,” he said.
“This has been a scam going on since Ronald Reagan’s days,” said Tierney, who served on the House intelligence committee. “Reagan was serious about it [missile defence systems], he really wanted it to work. But I think we showed pretty conclusively over hundreds of billions of dollars, and everybody’s best efforts, that it’s not feasible.”
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Tierney echoed that view. “The internal memo says ‘our success rate is much higher than that’ [50 per cent]. I am here to tell you it isn’t,” he said.
He said that even in the best conditions, interceptors do not work all the time. “They never tested it against those types of realistic conditions… It was always in daytime… and you still can’t get it right more than about half the time.”
He described ground-based interceptors as a “pie in the sky” project.
“It’s the best course of action, to consult with all of the experts that we did,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. Bigelow, like Tierney, hopes the film will spur discussion about nuclear proliferation.
Writing on his Substack, Cirincione warned that the film may soon be viewed as prescient. He said: “One day, the fictional attack depicted in A House of Dynamite may play out in the real world. We should expect the same results.”
Tierney alleged that senior politicians are aware of the deterrent’s flaws. He recalled a conversation with a former congressman who is in President Trump’s cabinet. Tierney said he told the politician, who he declined to name, that the system was not fit for purpose.
“I agree with you that it’s not going to work,” he quoted the congressman in reply. “But we have to tell the constituents we’re doing something.” Read more
