Correct. They were really anti-MIG weapons. They work by getting near the target and blowing up, using the explosion to damage the target without having to actually fly into the target directly (which is a much harder problem at those speeds). They were able to find and explode near SCUDs just fine, but SCUDs are really just big heavy bombs not fragile jets, and the Patriots don't have the punch to effectively damage the warheads inside the SCUDs.

So they started moving to impact weapons instead of close range explosive weapons. Unfortunately that means actually having to hit a target moving very very quickly and dealing with wind, air pockets, etc... The real world success rates of this type of system are woefully unproven. Extremely stacked tests still fail way more than you'd like.

SCUDs and SCUD like missiles are cheap and easy to build, so launching a thousand of them isn't a big deal. Take an insanely expensive anti-SCUD missile with a 50% hit rate (which is generous btw) and you're still letting 500 warheads hit your city, assuming you HAD 1000 anti-SCUDs in the area, which seems unlikely.

I've been VERY pleased with the reliability and speed of my Drobo. If you don't want to spend the time rolling your own, dealing with linux raid drivers and related issues, etc... Just get a Drobo.

As a citizen, I'm scared of McCain and what he's liable to do, and I'm not scared of Obama. I'm going to vote based on my opinions, not guessing what our "enemies" might be scared of.