The television images didn't fully reflect that a number of the Patriots were just wounding Scuds or pushing them off course; big chunks of both missiles then fell to the ground. ROTFLMAO! and shaking my head in disbelief.
Gimme a break here gentlemen. What the hay does this idiot writer think should happen? Both missiles totally vaporize? Both missiles continue on into outer space orbit!? Of course the damn things fell to the ground. Things you toss into the air generally do. The question is, did you disrupt a) the flight path and/or b) the warhead enough that the target was less/unaffected.
You can't really ask for much more, and if your enemy is just lobbing the things at a large populated area, yes, there are going to be some casualties.
What idiocy.
The problem in terms of Patriots vs Scuds is that the Scuds are not attacking specific targets. If the Scuds were tryng to take out the Israeli defense building then pushing it off course is a success. The Scud, however, as the initial article points out is inaccurate and effective only as a terror weapon. So attacking the Scud over the heads of friendlies with a Patriot merely adds the debris of the Patriot to the debris field. If the ABM had a longer range and were able to attack the incoming missile before it crossed into friendly territory it would certainly be more efective even if it were just "wounding" the incoming missile.