OT: Upper limit on Lasers, range and power....

[PvK]

My impression is that the degree of cause and effect there is doubtful, even if some people try to say so. The USSR was paranoid about the cold war and embarking in severe and often self-destructive defense policies continuously for a very long time (since Stalin, at the very least). Attempts to develop various Anti-(Anti-)Ballistic Missile technologies in the USSR, and massive military investments, went back way before Reagan. The problems with the Soviet system were much more pervasive and complex than whatever effect Reagan and Star Wars had (or didn't have) on them. Seems to me the Soviet bloc inevitably crumbled from within and Reagan and Star Wars were just coincidental wacko corruptions on our side of the fence.