Bush's Pie in the Sky
More news of how this administration manipulates anything and everything for short-run political advantage:
Bush's Star Wars fantasy, The New York Times: A Pentagon panel of outside rocketry experts was too polite to use the phrase "pie in the sky," but they might as well have in excoriating the rush to deploy an unworkable antimissile system in time for President George W. Bush's 2004 re-election campaign. Although clearly bedeviled by test failures and unproven components, the first antimissile stations in this fantastic $130 billion-plus windfall for the defense industry were officially deployed on the West Coast last autumn - just in time to cover Bush's vow in 2000 to have the system up in four years. Predictably, the re-election was soon followed by more embarrassing test failures … According to a Washington Post report on the classified study, the experts concluded that the rush to deployment only compounded long-running technical problems. The badly flawed system remains unable to detect or destroy an incoming missile despite the continuing billions spent on complex problems with booster rocket, radar and satellite systems. … the Pentagon … has pronounced the program in a state of "evolutionary acquisition." This means the parts were designed and contracted out first in hopes of actually making them work later … the Pentagon, in rushing to deliver on the president's promise, suspended normal accountability standards for this offspring of the military industry's old Star Wars grail. Dozens of retired admirals and generals have urged the president to shift money to the more imminent threat of low-tech terrorism at America's vulnerable ports, borders and nuclear weapon depots. This advice has been ignored…
Posted by Mark Thoma on Friday, June 24, 2005 at 09:28 PM in Politics, Science |
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