[Mb-civic] NYTimes.com Article: The Faith-Based Missile Shield

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The Faith-Based Missile Shield

October 10, 2004
 


 

The Bush administration's exorbitantly wasteful missile
defense system is about to be formally activated, just in
time for its immediate bull's-eye: Election Day. Despite
widespread technological doubts, President Bush promised in
2000 to have a missile shield in place this November. So,
even though the $130 billion spent so far has yet to
produce anything like a battle-ready system, the Pentagon
plans to pronounce it active this month at a half dozen new
missile silos on the West Coast. 

This wisp of the old Star Wars fever dream is bedeviled by
missing components and unproven premises. The Pentagon has
suspended normal accountability standards in favor of what
military proponents euphemistically term "evolutionary
acquisition." This means spend and build now, and attempt
credible tests when and if all the parts finally arrive.
Even a Pentagon analysis called it a "case study" against
rushing forward on faith. 

Development delays have plagued the project's vital parts,
from booster rockets to radar installations and satellite
systems. Skimpy tests, which had to be interrupted two
years ago, were ludicrously scripted. Dozens of retired
generals and admirals urged the White House earlier this
year to shelve the hollow start-up plan and spend the money
more wisely on bolstering borders, ports and other inviting
targets for low-tech terrorists. 

"They'd still be testing at Kitty Hawk, for God's sake, if
you wanted perfection," groused Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld in precisely the take-it-or-leave-it tone that
saps the project's credibility. There is no disputing the
idea that North Korea or some other rogue nation might
someday present a nuclear missile threat. But creating a
real shield is far different from proclaiming a fantasy
one. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/10/opinion/10sun2.html?ex=1098426699&ei=1&en=3bea7127ae44cfa0


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