"We build a shield, and somebody will build a better missile."
November 29, 2017 12:20 PM Subscribe
A West Wing episode from 2001 perfectly captures the mood of 2017. North Korea launches an ICBM in 2017. Aaron Sorkin and "The West Wing" predicted it in 2001.
Excerpted from westwingtranscripts.com:
BARTLET
Where are you on the missile shield?
MARBURY
Well, I think it's dangerous, illegal... fiscally irresponsible, technologically unsound, and a threat to all people everywhere.
BARTLET
Leo?
LEO
I think the world invented a nuclear weapon. I think the world owes it to itself to see if it can't invent something that would make it irrelevant.
MARBURY
Well, that's the right sentiment, certainly a credible one from a man who's fought in a war. You think you can make it stop? Well, you can't. We build a shield,
and somebody will build a better missile.
BARTLET
Well, it's a discussion for serious men. They say a statesman is a politician who's been dead for fifteen years. I'd like us to be statesmen while we're still alive.
Obligatory . for John Spencer and Roger Rees.
Excerpted from westwingtranscripts.com:
BARTLET
Where are you on the missile shield?
MARBURY
Well, I think it's dangerous, illegal... fiscally irresponsible, technologically unsound, and a threat to all people everywhere.
BARTLET
Leo?
LEO
I think the world invented a nuclear weapon. I think the world owes it to itself to see if it can't invent something that would make it irrelevant.
MARBURY
Well, that's the right sentiment, certainly a credible one from a man who's fought in a war. You think you can make it stop? Well, you can't. We build a shield,
and somebody will build a better missile.
BARTLET
Well, it's a discussion for serious men. They say a statesman is a politician who's been dead for fifteen years. I'd like us to be statesmen while we're still alive.
Obligatory . for John Spencer and Roger Rees.
This post was deleted for the following reason: Sorry, I know you don't intend it this way -- and if someone wants to do a post about North Korea's missile program/what's going on there, that would be fine -- but backing into it by way of a West Wing episode feels inappropriately frivolous. -- LobsterMitten
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