Radical Avenue

Shortly before leaving office in 1961, President Dwight Eisenhower warned Americans about the rising influence of the military establishment and its corporate sponsors.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

President Bush’s missile defense program serves as a prime example of such unwarranted influence run amok. The president purposely antagonizes Russia on missile defense rather than using good old fashioned diplomacy to reduce the need for ballistic missiles and missile defense programs.

Mr. Bush and Mr. Putin should negotiate mutually beneficial treaties for once, instead of always talking past each other. Diplomacy doesn’t cost American taxpayers a hundred billion dollars.

Too Easy to Defeat
Since we live in a peaceful neighborhood, it would probably take long range missiles to attack the US. Very few countries in the world have Intercontinental Ballistic missiles. Great Britain and France pose no threat. And the chances of Russia and China bombing us from afar have greatly diminished in the past two decades.

Lots of countries have suicide bombers capable of making their way into America. Terrorists can smuggle bombs into the US by boat, plane, train, automobile or motorcycle. While the threat from incoming ICBMs diminishes, the threat from small terrorist cells grows. We should focus more directly on this security risk.

Too Expensive
The US has already spent $120 billion on missile defense since 1985. The Bush administration now wants $12 billion more for 2009. This money is better spent increasing port security, inspecting more cargo containers, supplying our troops with armored Humvees and helping to improve conditions in areas that may become havens for terrorists.

Too Unproven
All of the Defense Department’s tests have involved shooting down American rockets at a known time and place. These tests don’t account for steps the Russians and Chinese have taken to defeat missile shields. Missiles don’t always fly straight. They sometimes wobble, tumble or follow irregular flight patterns. It’s not clear how well a missile defense system would work against such rockets.

It’s essentially impossible to simulate a real world ICBM attack and we wouldn’t want to find out about our defense system the hard way. Our leaders should spend more time negotiating arms control agreements and less time touting questionable defense technology.

Eisenhower, military industrial complex, missile defense, ICBMs