Missile Defence Shield - another multi-billion-dollar Bush flop

Obsession with MDS proves Washington has lost touch with reality

That Washington was obsessed with the Missile Defence Shield in the time of Bush senior, and continues to be under Bush junior, there is no doubt. Yet this multi-billion-dollar "defence shield" is supposed to defend Americans against what? A rogue Father Christmas riding a ballistic sleigh?

After years of work and billions upon billions of dollars poured into the project - doled out to the super-rich clique of corporate elitists who gravitate around Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld, whose manipulation of fear gave them another four-year lease of life - the result is a flop. Big time. 

In the first test in two years, performed yesterday, the system failed to work because an interceptor missile failed to launch. It appears that the United States of America is not very good at projecting things into space these days and in fact, if Washington wants to do anything on the
International Space Station, it has to go knocking on Moscow's door.

It also appears that George Bush is very good at squandering billions of dollars of his taxpayers' money on military equipment and campaigns (200 billion already in Iraq, which is in a state of constant chaos) and now tens of billions of dollars a year on a system such as the MDS which is as porous and as outdated as a piece of blotting paper.

And the MDS is supposed to make Americans feel safe? Against what? In today's world, no country is going to fire missiles at the USA and even if they did, they would use a type of missile which would not be detected by the shield. Therefore the "Shield" is in fact nothing more than an outdated plaything from Cold War days, run by a group of outdated, unbalanced corporate elitists who are either too senile for their jobs, or else use the  Shield" as a means to hand out billionaire contracts to their cronies.

If a terrorist organization wanted to create havoc in the USA and make the Americans feel unsafe, it would be relatively easy to make explosive devices and deploy them in centres of population, far easier than obtaining an intercontinental ballistic missile, which Colin Powell might believe can be driven around a desert in vehicles but which is too large an object and far too sophisticated to produce in a back yard.

Neither is the nuclear (or for Mr. Bush to understand better, Noocular) deterrent a valid argument, since nuclear weapons systems do not need to be fired from a rocket or a missile.

So if George Bush wants to carry on wasting hundreds of billions of dollars on illegal and ineffective wars and obsolete and unworkable weapons systems, which are seen as not only useless but also belligerent by the rest of the world, let his citizens elect Cheney or Rice in four years' time for the circus to continue. That is, until Bush's disastrous policies start to bite in their pockets, which they most certainly will.  

If George Bush wishes to believe that a "rogue" state such as the DPR Korea (rogue? Has North Korea invaded anyone or slaughtered tens of thousands of civilians?) is preparing to launch missiles at the USA, let us also believe that the Tooth Fairy will come and leave a penny under the pillow.
More and more, the government of the Bush regime reflects what in medical terms is called delirium tremens.