Edited for brevity.
The White House yesterday announced that global opposition to President Bush's missile-defense plan largely has collapsed in the wake of the war against terrorism, causing a "sea change" of views even in nations such as Russia, which once opposed the plan. "We had a lively national debate about missile defense for 20 years," said a senior administration official. "That more or less appears to be settled." Responding to questions from The Washington Times, the official added: "There really has been a sea change."
| So much for the denigrating talk of "Star Wars" and the predictions that it'll never work. It's been demonstrated that it does, and if it does and you still leave yourself naked to anything from SCUDs to ICBMs you're not protecting the nation — regardless of which nation you are... |
To mark the milestone, the White House last night formally codified its quest for a global missile-defense system in a document known as National Security Policy Directive 23, releasing an unclassified version that spells out the president's vision. "Hostile states, including those that sponsor terrorism, are investing large resources to develop and acquire ballistic missiles of increasing range and sophistication," the document stated. "The United States and our allies lack effective defenses against this threat." To remedy that, the Bush administration is accelerating deployment of the first stages of a missile shield in Alaska that would be able by next year to intercept any missile fired from North Korea. But the shield eventually would be extended to encompass many nations, a large number of which are scrambling to sign up for protection. |