What they can't seem to grasp is the fact that the program poses a real and present threat to our planet, as well as to the goal of achieving a world free of nuclear weapons.

The next testing phase, scheduled sometime between March and June, will take place at the U.S. Army Missile Testing Range at Kwajalein atoll in the Marshall Islands. That's where the launch site is for "kill vehicle" - a missile intended to intercept a simulated enemy missile fired from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base.

A current review of the program is being undertaken by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and he's expected to report back to President Bush in late March.

Hopefully, the President will realize the threat it poses and dismantle the project. German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer has even warned that the "missile defense must not come at the expense of arms control." Other U.S. allies have similarly expressed their concerns such a the French President, Jacques Chirac, who recently cautioned that the Star Wars plan would "relaunch the arms race in the world," a point that has been backed up by the U.S. government’s own intelligence reports. Those reports have warned that both Russia and China will probably expand and modernize their nuclear arsenals to counter our missile shield.

What a scary prospect, another nuclear arms race. As you can see, the Star Wars project will only shoot down the international nuclear disarmament process. Nothing good can come out of this. If you're worried, you should be. You can help by Taking Action and sending a letter to President Bush urging him to dismantle the Star Wars project.

More Info On Star Wars:

National Missile Defense (NMD), commonly known as Star Wars, is a plan for a screen over the entire United States capable of tracking and destroying incoming ballistic missiles. In theory, a series of satellites and ground-based radar systems would give early warning of an incoming attack. These same systems would track the incoming missiles that would then be destroyed by "kill vehicles" launched from bases in U.S. territories. The system has a price tag over 60 billion dollars and echoes the disaster of Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), which proposed space-based missiles over the entire country.

Since the Reagan presidency, the U.S. Star Wars program has gone through many phases and many failures. With a total of around $120 billion spent, a system has yet to be developed that will work. The United States continues to pour billions of dollars into doomed military tests.

The system has been tested three times under ideal conditions. The first test was a dubious success and the second and third were outright failures. Despite the repeated failures, Pentagon and defense contractors are eager to keep the Star Wars testing program on schedule. At least 20 more are planned between now and 2007. The next test is scheduled between March and June of this year.

The latest Star Wars program, developed under the Clinton administration, calls for initial deployment of 20 "kill vehicles" in operation by 2007. Clinton's plan also calls for the construction of a new radar on the Alaskan island of Shemya, the upgrading of the five existing radars in the U.S. early warning system, a ring of sensors in space and three facilities to guide "kill vehicles" to their targets.

The Bush administration is currently reviewing these plans with a view of expanding them. A revamped and more costly program might also involve intercept missiles based at sea, radars and lasers based on aircraft and in space.

It is feared that President Bush's Star Wars development program will reverse the September 1 decision of the Clinton administration to not proceed to the next stage of the program which is the construction of the new radar at Shemya. This construction is crucial as it could be the spark which leads to a collapse of the international arms control and disarmament.