Why have hijacked jetliners and anthrax letters triggered renewed Republican calls for an anti-missile defense system?
Dubya and his cronies are using the Sept. 11 low-tech tragedies to promote an $80-billion high-tech network to counter intercontinental ballistic missiles launched from some rogue nation.
Clearly a pork-barrel bonus to America’s military-industrial complex, the Son of Star Wars boondoggle won’t deter terrorists using boxcutters and the United States Postal Service.
Sneaking a primitive “dirty” plutonium bomb across the porous U.S. border with Canada would be cheaper and more effective for America’s enemies.
The Dubya Administration could better defend the nation by preemptive attacks on known producers of contraband biological, chemical and nuclear devices.
And by beefing up America’s border, immigration and law-enforcement agencies and military special forces. (16 DECEMBER 2001)