NYT: Rumsfeld Sees Some Progress in Missile Defense Plan but Seeks Test

[DeepModem Mom]

Rumsfeld Sees Some Progress in Missile Plan but Seeks Test
By DAVID S. CLOUD
Published: August 28, 2006

FORT GREELY, Alaska, Aug. 27 — Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld said here Sunday that while the fledgling United States ballistic missile defense system was becoming more capable, he wanted to see a successful full-scale test before declaring it able to shoot down a ballistic missile.

“I have a lot of confidence in these folks, and I have a lot of confidence in the work that’s been done,” Mr. Rumsfeld said after touring one of the system’s two interceptor sites. But he added that he wanted to see a test “where we actually put all the pieces together; that just hasn’t happened.”

Mr. Rumsfeld’s assessment was more cautious than that of the Missile Defense Agency director, Lt. Gen. Henry A. Obering III of the Air Force. General Obering said recently that he was confident the system could have shot down a ballistic missile test-fired July 4 by North Korea, if it had been a live attack aimed at the United States. The two-stage rocket broke up shortly after launching and fell into the Sea of Japan.

The Bush administration has taken the unusual step of deploying the system, which is designed to shoot down a limited number of missiles, before testing is completed and before all the radars and sensors necessary to track incoming missiles are in place. Mr. Rumsfeld repeated Sunday that the system was aimed at protecting against attacks from North Korea and Iran, which he called “rogue states that are intent on developing long-range ballistic missiles.”

The first flight test of the American system in more than a year, involving the firing of an interceptor at a target, is planned for this week, but it is not the sort of full-blown trial Mr. Rumsfeld meant....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/28/washington/28missile.html?hp&ex=1156824000&en=cab05342ea77c57f&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. Another case of dragging us into something bogus under false

pretenses and then later on non-admitting admitting that they don't have the slightest idea about what they are doing when the scheme is going no-place.

[FloridaPat]

2. Those defense contractors that started that thing got no money

when Clinton was in office. So * had to make up their money. Who needs to test anything? * isn't interested in defending the country. He's only interested in defending the defense contractors and his own hide

[Demeter]

3. Star Wars Won't Be Dead Until Darth Cheney Is Dead

But Star Wars will never be functional.

The 3 Laws of Thermodynamcs resulted from a century of American and European efforts to build a perpetual motion machine. Wonder what physical laws will result from this Impossible Dream? Hopefully, something that includes massive amounts of jail time.

What a waste it all is.