IP: THE FAITH-BASED MISSILE DEFENSE: What's New for May 11, 2001

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

>1. WEEKLY DISASTER REPORT: THE FAITH-BASED MISSILE DEFENSE.  Last
>week, you will recall, President Bush called for a global missile
>shield, including space-based elements, but he was pretty short
>on specifics(WN 4 May 01).  This week, Defense Secretary Donald
>Rumsfeld called a press conference to talk about military uses of
>space.  Many of us expected he would fill in some of the missing
>details from the President's speech.  He didn't.  Rumsfeld
>devoutly believes that an effective missile defense is out there
>somewhere, but neither he nor the President seems to have any
>idea of what the shield would involve or any evidence that such a
>thing is even feasible, much less what it would cost, when it
>might be deployed or whether it even has to work.   Rumsfeld
>wanted to talk about the management and organization of a new
>national-security space initiative; it would be given the task of
>filling in the missing details.  Not a bad strategy -- opponents
>of a missile shield are left with nothing specific to attack.



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