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| Home Front: Politix |
| Retired top brass say no to ’missile shield’ |
| 2004-03-27 |
| Filed under Politix as this is an early example of what will be come a pattern: disgruntled brass going after Bush. Forty-nine retired generals and admirals yesterday urged President Bush to suspend plans for a national missile shield and instead use the money to secure nuclear materials abroad and ports and borders at home. I’d respect this more if they said "use the extra money to lay waste to Syria and Iran. The Bush administration plans to field a nationwide defense system in September to shoot down missiles armed with chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons, and has budgeted $3.7 billion this year for the project. Thus fulfilling a campaign pledge. But the 49 former senior military leaders contend that the system remains unproven. They also said it is more likely that terrorists would smuggle weapons of mass destruction into the United States than a country would launch a missile at the United States, risking a devastating retaliatory strike. "As you have said, Mr. President, our highest priority is to prevent terrorists from acquiring and employing weapons of mass destruction," wrote the former officers, including Apparantly, Kim Jung Il was unable to sign the letter, but has offered many supportive press releases over the years. The retired officers added that "the militarily responsible course of action" is to Basically do what Kerry wants to do. The General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, recently concluded that only two of the antimissile system’s 10 key technologies have been fully tested. Meanwhile, to make the September deadline, the Pentagon has waived some operational testing requirements. The military’s top weapons tester stated earlier this month that such testing is not planned "for the foreseeable future." Please tell me this latter quote is out of context. Still, many lives have been saved by rushing new technologies into service during wartime. Providing CAS from a B-52 using JDAM was untested in Nov. 2001. The letter calls on the president to "postpone operational deployment of the expensive and untested" system. ...as Sen. Kerry suggests. It is one element of a larger missile defense effort -- estimated to cost $53 billion over the next five years -- that will use ships at sea and other methods to track and deflect missile launches. Navy Secretary Gordon England announced Monday that a specially equipped Aegis destroyer will be positioned this fall in the Sea of Japan, where it will be an alert for North Korean missile launches. The retired brass would prefer that Japan builds a bunch of nukes. |
| Posted by:JAB |
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| Posted by: JAB 2004-03-28 12:37:26 AM |
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| Posted by: Jen 2004-03-27 10:28:10 PM |
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| Posted by: Jen 2004-03-27 10:20:11 PM |
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| Posted by: Jarhead 2004-03-27 9:46:11 PM |
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| Posted by: Jarhead 2004-03-27 9:38:46 PM |
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| Posted by: Jen 2004-03-27 8:10:58 PM |
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| Posted by: JAB 2004-03-27 7:42:08 PM |
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| Posted by: Jarhead 2004-03-27 7:29:01 PM |
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| Posted by: Shipman 2004-03-27 6:01:28 PM |
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| Posted by: Old Patriot 2004-03-27 3:01:05 PM |
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| Posted by: JAB 2004-03-27 2:38:18 PM |
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| Posted by: IceCold 2004-03-27 10:54:35 AM |
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| Posted by: Frank G 2004-03-27 10:17:33 AM |