Under these circumstances, all sides win: proponents, opponents, and of course the Pentagon, which gets more money to close the supposed missile gap. The missiles we are talking about are air defense missiles, those that are used to shoot down Iran’s missiles. Nothing has prevailed as the conclusion, and that has influenced the view of missile defense on the battlefield and regional level, creating a little bit of a prejudice against Patriot and its brethren. Except for one difference: how many missiles Iran has (or China or Russia) is known a lot better than eight decades ago. After all, the “missile gap” with the Soviet Union was used to justify building more nuclear weapons, that is, more offense.