March
18, 2002 8:40 a.m. Smash
Hit
The
power politics of missile defense.
riday's
successful missile-defense test didn't receive an enormous amount
of attention from the media, and what attention it did receive was grudging.
Reporters seem to like it so much better when this system, meant to protect
our cities from nuclear attack, fails. The short New York Times
story on the test contains a single quote: "Our concern about these
tests is that the American people are getting unrealistic expectations,"
said Chris Madison of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation.
Instead of appreciation
for an incredible technological achievement — one with enormous practical
benefits in a dangerous world, by the way — there's almost a sigh
of disappointment when the Pentagon shows it can "hit a bullet with
a bullet," as the generals like to say. About 140 miles above the
Pacific Ocean, a missile launched from the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile
Defense Site (don't you love that?) in the Marshall Islands hit a modified
Minuteman II launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
Friday's test was
the sixth one in which the Pentagon tried to hit a target, and the fourth
time it has succeeded. It was also the most complicated test the emerging
missile-defense system has confronted: The interceptor had to distinguish
between the mock warhead and three decoys (a large balloon, a small red
balloon, and a small white balloon). In previous experiments, the interceptor
has faced only a single countermeasure.
The missile-defense
naysayers probably won't talk much about this latest success. They may
say that the test wasn't hard enough, or they may suggest it was rigged.
But mostly they'll hold out the perverse hope that the next test flops.
In the meantime,
though, the Pentagon is showing that missile-defense technology can work
consistently and in a variety of environments. That's great news for President
Bush, who made missile defense a centerpiece of his campaign.
The Pentagon's Ballistic
Missile Defense Organization now says it will have a rudimentary missile-defense
system ready a little more than two years from now. It won't protect the
United States against a massive attack from China or Russia, but it will
make it impossible for a country with primitive missile technology, such
as North Korea, to engage in nuclear blackmail.
There's even a target
date for deployment: September 2004. Hmmm. The first time an American
president can tell his country that it's safe from a nuclear power's sneak
attack comes about two months before the next presidential election. Sounds
like a campaign event.
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